The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan
- Épisodes
- 728
- Parution
- plusieurs fois par semaine
- Dernier épisode
- 12 Nov 2026
À propos du podcast
Hear the stories, learn the proven methods, and accelerate your growth and future through entrepreneurship. Welcome to The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan. About the show: For over a decade, The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan has been a leading entrepreneurship podcast for open-book conversations with, by, and for founders. Whether you're starting, building, or dreaming about your business, The Foundr Podcast is where you can access experienced founders who've been in your shoes to learn their proven methods, lessons from failure, and inspirational stories. Past guests include Emma Grede, Mark Cuban, Neil Patel, Kendra Scott, Alex Hormozi, Trinny Woodall, Tim Ferriss, Sophia Amoruso, Simon Sinek, Tony Robbins, Amy Porterfield, Ed Mylett, Michelle Zatlyn, Reid Hoffman, Scooter Braun, Dany Garcia, Marc Lore, Ariana Huffington, Pat Flynn, Lewis Howes, Jordan Harbinger, and many more. About the host: Nathan Chan is the CEO of Foundr and the creator of The Foundr Podcast. Chan literally started from knowing nothing. He was just an average guy working in a 9-5 job he utterly hated. He knew nothing about entrepreneurship, nothing about startups, nothing about marketing, and nothing about online or how to build a business. In the past decade, Chan's built Foundr into a global leader in entrepreneurial education, helping tens of thousands of aspiring entrepreneurs start and scale their businesses. Need help with your business? Visit foundr.com/foundrplustrial to join a global community of entrepreneurs, gain access to proven strategies, and fast-track your business growth confidently.
Épisodes 728
727: We Took on the Cookware Industry with One Pan - and Built a $100M+ Brand
Shiza Shahid went from co-founding the Malala Fund - a global girls' education nonprofit - to launching a direct-to-consumer cookware brand built around a single pan. The idea was radical: take the 16 pieces of …
Notes de l’épisode
Shiza Shahid went from co-founding the Malala Fund - a global girls' education nonprofit - to launching a direct-to-consumer cookware brand built around a single pan. The idea was radical: take the 16 pieces of cookware a legacy brand would sell you, find where they intersect, and design one beautiful, nontoxic product that does it all. She and her husband spent two years designing from scratch, went through 30 iterations, bootstrapped $100-200K of their own savings, and got rejected by around 100 investors. When Our Place finally launched the Always Pan in 2019, it was quiet - until it went viral, sold out more than 30 times, and landed in the kitchens of Oprah, Gwyneth Paltrow, Selena Gomez and David Beckham. The company did $50 million in revenue in its first year.
In this interview, Shiza breaks down why obsessing over product beats leaning on marketing, the first-order profitability discipline that won investors over after 100 rejections, and how culture-led storytelling outperformed the paid-ads playbook.
What you'll learn in this interview: • Why she bet one multifunctional pan could disrupt an industry built on selling 16-piece sets • The two-year, 30-iteration design process - and why they designed from scratch instead of white-labelling • How they bootstrapped on $100-200K and turned 100 investor rejections into financial discipline • Why the Always Pan went viral: the first cookware beautiful enough to leave on the stove, not hide in a cupboard • How first-order profitability - not cash-to-LTV promises - became their whole investor pitch • The 30-40% repeat purchase rate in a category where 3-4% is normal - and the product ecosystem behind it • Why authentic, culture-led storytelling beat the paid performance playbook everyone else was running • How designing collections around Lunar New Year, Diwali and Persian New Year made communities feel seen • Why relying on marketing over product is "a ticking time bomb" - and the case for reinventing your hero product again and again • Why mission built into the business model scales with growth, instead of being an annual line-item debate
If you're building a DTC or physical-product brand, trying to achieve genuine product-market fit, or wrestling with whether product or marketing should carry your growth, this conversation will fundamentally change how you think about differentiation, discipline, and building a brand that lasts.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend using the code FOUNDR50. Start here → https://your.omnisend.com/foundr
SAVE 95% ON XERO FOR 6 MONTHS Simplify your business finances with 95% off Xero for your first 6 months. Start here → https://foundr.com/xero
GET UP TO $10K IN MATCHED AD CREDITS ON APPLOVIN Scale your DTC brand beyond Meta and Google with up to $10,000 in matched ad credits, plus $1,000 free to test AppLovin. Start here → https://applovin.com/foundr
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 SHIZA SHADID Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/shiza/
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/shizashahid
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
726: Kristi, Eric & Alex Wrote Off $230K of Stock to Save Their Brand - It’s Now Done $4M in 5 Years
Drop Dead Hair is run by three people: Christy, a hairstylist of over a decade; her husband Eric, who trained in manufacturing; and Eric's identical twin Alex, a designer. They'd been building businesses …
Notes de l’épisode
Drop Dead Hair is run by three people: Christy, a hairstylist of over a decade; her husband Eric, who trained in manufacturing; and Eric's identical twin Alex, a designer. They'd been building businesses together since they were kids - mowing lawns, selling oranges, running photography and design agencies - and when Christy kept coming home frustrated that no extension brand was actually made for stylists, they decided to build one themselves. It took nearly five years to get off the ground. Then, a year after launching, they made the hardest call of all: scrapping $230,000 of their first product entirely because it wasn't good enough. Today they're on track to do $2.75 million in annual sales.
In this episode, the three of them get honest about what it really takes to build a quality-first B2B brand: the brutal year of sleepless nights and customer complaints, the leap of faith to a brand-new factory and product, and the unconventional affiliate engine that grew the business for years before they ever touched an ad.
What you'll learn in this interview:
- How three complementary skill sets - hairstyling, manufacturing, and design - let them run nearly every function in-house without hiring, from tech packs to photography to the website
- The product-development approach that had factories telling them "no one has ever asked us these questions" - obsessing over raw materials, shine, strength, and tiny details like how often shears get sharpened in finishing
- The hard truth about small-batch testing: why a great sample is a completely different thing from mass production, and how volume exposed a whole new slew of problems they couldn't see
- The gut-wrenching decision to write off $230,000 of their first product after about a year - selling through only ~$100K of it, marking the rest a loss, and finding new capital to start over rather than tarnish the brand
- Why they moved to a new factory for version 2.0, and the two things that drove the whole rebuild: quality and batch-to-batch consistency, critical when your reorder rate is high and you're working with human hair
- The real growth curve: ~$112K in their first full year, then roughly doubling every single year - $600K, $1.3M, and a projected $2.75M - hitting their 2x target three years running
- The B2B marketing engine most brands overlook: a group of 25 hairstylist affiliates ("Drop Dead Elite Artists") who tag the brand and live in their bios, delivering a rock-steady seven salon registrations a day for years with zero ad spend
- Why stylist-to-stylist trust beats conventional influencer marketing in their world - and how they made their own affiliates the stars of every ad, so the content reads as real UGC rather than brand messaging
- The first 30 days of running ads: ~$20K spent to unlock ~$90K in new revenue and around 1,000 new registrations - and why their sky-high retention and second-purchase rates are the real "secret sauce"
- The Black Friday playbook they run all month long - giving salons a sale playbook to run in their own chairs, plus limited-edition incentives (yes, including a tote bag) to drive repeat purchases within the same promo
If you're building in B2B, working with a co-founder or two, or staring down a quality problem that would be easier to ignore than fix, this episode is for you. Drop Dead Hair's story is a grounded reminder that choosing the product over the short-term revenue, growing only as fast as your quality and cashflow allow, and building genuine trust with the people who actually recommend you can compound into something formidable.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend using the code FOUNDR50. Start here → https://your.omnisend.com/foundr
SAVE 95% ON XERO FOR 6 MONTHS Simplify your business finances with 95% off Xero for your first 6 months. Start here → https://foundr.com/xero
GET UP TO $10K IN MATCHED AD CREDITS ON APPLOVIN Scale your DTC brand beyond Meta and Google with up to $10,000 in matched ad credits, plus $1,000 free to test AppLovin. Start here → https://applovin.com/foundr
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 DROP DEAD HAIR Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/dropdeadextensions/ Website → https://dropdeadextensions.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
725: (Solo) The 5 Traits of Leaders who are Worth 20 Average Employees
Most founders are obsessed with hiring A players, and they should be. But after doing this for over a decade, I have learned the biggest unlock is not just hiring A players. It is identifying the people with …
Notes de l’épisode
Most founders are obsessed with hiring A players, and they should be. But after doing this for over a decade, I have learned the biggest unlock is not just hiring A players. It is identifying the people with leadership potential, often already on your team, and doing everything you can to elevate them so they multiply results across your company.
Here is the distinction that took me too long to learn: an A player is not just someone with the best technical skill. They produce exceptional results, they raise the standard of everyone around them, and, the one everyone misses, they take ownership of problems that are not in their job description.
In this episode, I break down what an A player actually is, the five traits of a leader who multiplies, and how to spot and develop these people before you leave your biggest growth lever untouched.
Here’s what you’ll take away:
- Why B players focus on their role and A players focus on the outcome, and why the best ones are often the quiet, understated people in the room
- The five traits of a leader who multiplies: pulled toward responsibility, makes others better, radically honest upward, fast with standards, and thinks like an owner
- The simple test: what happens to a team when one person goes on holiday tells you whether they are a bottleneck or a leader
- Why you have to create the conditions for leaders to emerge, by handing real stakes and real autonomy, not a test
- Why most founders waste 80% of their management energy on their worst performers instead of investing in their best
- The Larry Ellison story about rebuilding his leadership team at every milestone, and what it reveals about where to look when growth stalls
If you want to scale, especially as a solo founder, this episode will show you how to find and develop the leaders who can genuinely change the trajectory of your business.
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.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend using the code FOUNDR50. Start here → https://your.omnisend.com/foundr
SAVE 95% ON XERO FOR 6 MONTHS Simplify your business finances with 95% off Xero for your first 6 months. Start here → https://foundr.com/xero
GET UP TO $10K IN MATCHED AD CREDITS ON APPLOVIN Scale your DTC brand beyond Meta and Google with up to $10,000 in matched ad credits, plus $1,000 free to test AppLovin. Start here → https://applovin.com/foundr
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
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast
724: I Started a $1B Company on My Dad’s Credit Card at 15 | GT Dave
GT Dave was a 15-year-old being bullied and failing every class when his mum was diagnosed with breast cancer and given 12 months to live. The fermented tea his parents drank - kombucha - played a role in her …
Notes de l’épisode
GT Dave was a 15-year-old being bullied and failing every class when his mum was diagnosed with breast cancer and given 12 months to live. The fermented tea his parents drank - kombucha - played a role in her recovery, and GT became obsessed with sharing it. He reworked the recipe on his kitchen bench, designed his first label on his dad’s IBM computer, and funded the whole thing on his father’s Amex for just six months before it became profitable. Twenty-five years later, GT’s Living Foods commercialised and essentially created the entire kombucha category, holds over 40% market share, and has made him a billionaire - and he still owns 100% of it, having turned down every acquisition offer and every dollar of outside funding.
In this interview, GT breaks down why he spent the first ten years going store by store instead of chasing national chains, how in-store sampling and his family’s story built the category from nothing, and why he believes profit and passion struggle to coexist.
What you’ll learn in this interview:
- How his mum’s cancer recovery turned a bullied, failing teenager into a category founder
- Why he funded the business on his dad’s Amex for only six months before going profitable
- The slow-and-steady distribution strategy: why he stayed in a handful of LA stores for years
- How in-store sampling and storytelling - not ads or slogans - built an entirely new category
- Why he deliberately took ten years to reach national distribution, and how rushing can destroy you
- The 2010 alcohol controversy that wiped the category off shelves - and why only his brand came back
- Why he’s turned down every acquisition offer and kept 100% ownership for 25 years
- The dark side of success: the litigation, the $400K legal bill, and being a target for being wealthy
- Why he thinks profit and passion struggle to coexist - and how he keeps recalibrating to his path
- His advice for founders: get proof of concept, keep it slow, and know exactly why you’re doing it
If you’re building a brand in a category that doesn’t exist yet, wrestling with whether to raise money or stay in control, or trying to grow without losing what made you start, this conversation will fundamentally change how you think about patience, purpose, and building something that lasts.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend using the code FOUNDR50. Start here → https://your.omnisend.com/foundr
SAVE 95% ON XERO FOR 6 MONTHS Simplify your business finances with 95% off Xero for your first 6 months. Start here → https://foundr.com/xero
GET UP TO $10K IN MATCHED AD CREDITS ON APPLOVIN Scale your DTC brand beyond Meta and Google with up to $10,000 in matched ad credits, plus $1,000 free to test AppLovin. Start here → https://applovin.com/foundr
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 GT DAVE Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/gtdave3/ Website → https://gtslivingfoods.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
723: (Solo) Time or Money: The Framework That Changed How I Scale
A long time ago, Neil Patel called me out of the blue on Skype after I interviewed him, and the lesson from that conversation completely changed how I think about growing a business. It is simple, it sounds …
Notes de l’épisode
A long time ago, Neil Patel called me out of the blue on Skype after I interviewed him, and the lesson from that conversation completely changed how I think about growing a business. It is simple, it sounds obvious, but almost no founder I talk to actually applies it.
Here is the idea: as a founder, you have two resources, time and money, and at any given moment you almost never have both. The founders who scale fastest are not the ones with the best ideas or the best product. They are the ones who figured out which resource they actually have, and went all in on it at the right stage.
In this episode, I break down the time versus money framework Neil taught me, the two stages every founder moves through, and the two expensive mistakes I see founders make with both.
Here’s what you’ll take away:
- Why Neil could grow on Instagram with sweat equity early in his career, then chose to write a check for it later, same person, different stage, different strategy
- Stage one: why your time is effectively free when there is no opportunity cost yet, and how to use it to build dangerous skill
- Stage two: why doing everything yourself once you have revenue is not hustle, it is a bad allocation of resources
- Mistake one: throwing money at every problem, like hiring a web designer for a Shopify store when templates and AI will do the job
- Mistake two: having the money but still editing your own reels at midnight when your time is worth far more elsewhere
- The simple math: if your time is worth $500 an hour and you spend it on a $50 task, you are losing $450 every hour you do it yourself
If you are unsure whether to solve a problem with time or money right now, this episode will help you honestly assess which resource you actually have, and get strategic about where to spend 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.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend using the code FOUNDR50. Start here → https://your.omnisend.com/foundr
SAVE 95% ON XERO FOR 6 MONTHS Simplify your business finances with 95% off Xero for your first 6 months. Start here → https://foundr.com/xero
GET UP TO $10K IN MATCHED AD CREDITS ON APPLOVIN Scale your DTC brand beyond Meta and Google with up to $10,000 in matched ad credits, plus $1,000 free to test AppLovin. Start here → https://applovin.com/foundr
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
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast
722: How a $700 Pair of Glasses Led to a $2.89B Company | Warby Parker
Warby Parker started with a simple, infuriating question: why did a pair of glasses cost more than an iPhone? Neil Blumenthal and Dave Gilboa met in the first week of business school, pooled $120,000 of their …
Notes de l’épisode
Warby Parker started with a simple, infuriating question: why did a pair of glasses cost more than an iPhone? Neil Blumenthal and Dave Gilboa met in the first week of business school, pooled $120,000 of their life savings with their two co-founders, and spent a year and a half building a brand before selling a single pair. When they launched in Vogue and GQ in February 2010, they sold out of their entire inventory, built a waitlist of 20,000 customers, and hit their first-year sales target in three weeks. They didn’t spend a penny on customer acquisition for three years. Today Warby Parker has raised around $300 million, is a public company, and is one of the brands that defined the entire direct-to-consumer era.
In this interview, the co-founders and co-CEOs of Warby Parker break down how they built a fashion brand from first principles, why they obsessed over the name for six months before anything else, and the discipline of staying focused while everyone told them to expand.
What you’ll learn in this interview:
- Why a lost pair of glasses and a $700 bill became the insight for a category-defining brand
- The brand-first approach: why they spent six months and 2,000 options getting the name right
- How $120,000 of founder savings had to cover product, website, and PR - and why they ran out
- The Vogue and GQ launch that sold out their entire inventory and built a 20,000-person waitlist
- Why they spent zero on customer acquisition for three years - and how PR and word of mouth carried them
- The de-risking playbook: free shipping, free returns, and the home try-on that got glasses on faces
- Why being full-time students made it easier to take the risk than quitting a high-paying job
- How they hit their first-year target in three weeks - and why constraints forced creativity on inventory
- The retail accident: how selling glasses out of their own office led to a nationwide store rollout
- Why “strategy is what you say no to” - and the shiny-coin advice that kept them focused
If you’re building a DTC or physical-product brand, trying to stand out in a crowded market, or wrestling with whether to raise money or stay lean, this conversation will fundamentally change how you think about brand, focus, and solving a real problem from first principles.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend using the code FOUNDR50. Start here → https://your.omnisend.com/foundr
SAVE 95% ON XERO FOR 6 MONTHS Simplify your business finances with 95% off Xero for your first 6 months. Start here → https://foundr.com/xero
GET UP TO $10K IN MATCHED AD CREDITS ON APPLOVIN Scale your DTC brand beyond Meta and Google with up to $10,000 in matched ad credits, plus $1,000 free to test AppLovin. Start here → https://applovin.com/foundr
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 WARBY PARKER Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/warbyparker/ Website → https://www.warbyparker.com/
Dave's LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/davegilboa
Neil's LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/nblumenthal
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
721: Raquel Does $300K/Month - and Says it’s the Least Work She’s Ever Done
Raquel Vasseur never set out to build an empire - she set out to be free. After two retail stores in her early 20s that took out loans and tied her down, she swore off debt, physical storefronts, and anyone …
Notes de l’épisode
Raquel Vasseur never set out to build an empire - she set out to be free. After two retail stores in her early 20s that took out loans and tied her down, she swore off debt, physical storefronts, and anyone else's definition of success. When she couldn't find the right clothes for her baby daughter, she started Luna + Luca in late 2020 with $3,000, selling other brands wholesale before launching her own. Today she runs a $3-4 million a year children's clothing brand almost entirely by herself - one part-time helper, a few contractors, and a stack of AI workflows - while raising four kids. She jokes the brand is her "fourth baby."
In this episode, Raquel gets refreshingly honest about the unglamorous path to a sustainable empire: two years of not paying herself, the retail "failure" that taught her everything, and why she's deliberately chosen not to chase the bigger-revenue brands she sees around her.
What you'll learn in this interview:
- Why she started Luna + Luca with just $3,000 selling other brands wholesale - and how she realised within a year that the margins would never get her where she wanted, so she built her own label
- The retail-store "failure" in her early 20s that shaped everything: taking out loans, believing she needed all the right flooring and software before opening, and why she flipped that entirely the second time around
- Her self-imposed constraints that became superpowers - no loans, no debt, no paid apps, building and running her own website for years, treating "how little can I do this on?" as a game
- The brutal honesty about timelines: roughly two years of putting every dollar back in before she paid herself a cent, and why she only started paying herself around $30K/month
- The "pay yourself first" philosophy that changed everything - and why most founders get it backwards
- How she managed it all as a mum of young kids: shipping packages from 8pm to 1am, tag-teaming with her husband, and accepting (not loving) that balance isn't really possible
- The year her revenue stayed flat - when the iOS privacy changes wrecked ads, so she turned ads off entirely for 12 months - and how she still grew a minimum of 60% a year otherwise
- The single biggest mindset unlock from Founder Operators: seeing inside other founders' ad accounts and realising every business is different - and choosing to stay grounded in her own goals instead of getting "stars in her eyes"
- The specific ad changes that drove her biggest-ever profit month: moving from CBO to ABO to control which SKUs get spend, splitting catalog ads by collection, and scaling from $600 to over $3,000/day
- How she uses Claude and a contractor-built automation system to run lean - analysing Shopify and Klaviyo data on command, and fully automating inbound creator requests from DM to Shopify order without touching it
If you're a solo founder - especially a parent - who feels like you have to choose between scale and sanity, this episode will change how you think about what "winning" actually looks like. Raquel's story is proof that slow, intentional, debt-free building on your own terms can quietly outperform the flashier path - and that the goal was never the biggest business, just a free one.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend using the code FOUNDR50. Start here → https://your.omnisend.com/foundr
SAVE 95% ON XERO FOR 6 MONTHS Simplify your business finances with 95% off Xero for your first 6 months. Start here → https://foundr.com/xero
GET UP TO $10K IN MATCHED AD CREDITS ON APPLOVIN Scale your DTC brand beyond Meta and Google with up to $10,000 in matched ad credits, plus $1,000 free to test AppLovin. Start here → https://applovin.com/foundr
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 Instagram → Website →
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
720: (Solo) How do You Know When It's Time to Fire Someone
At some point, every founder has to do the thing nobody trains you for and nobody really talks about: letting someone go. It is not easy, it is not fun, and I am not going to pretend otherwise. But out of all …
Notes de l’épisode
At some point, every founder has to do the thing nobody trains you for and nobody really talks about: letting someone go. It is not easy, it is not fun, and I am not going to pretend otherwise. But out of all my founder friends, I am yet to meet one who said they fired someone too early. Everyone says the same thing. They dragged it on for far too long.
Here is why it is so hard: it is not a business problem, it is an emotional one. You feel guilty, you sold this person the dream, and part of you believes that if they are not performing, it is your failure as a leader. But keeping someone in a role that is not working is not leadership. It is avoidance.
In this episode, I share the framework I use to separate the emotion from the decision, the five signals that tell you it is time, and how to actually have the conversation with dignity.
Here’s what you’ll take away:
- Why the real cost of keeping the wrong person is the opportunity cost, and why you always realise you should have acted months or years earlier
- The five signals it is time: from “managing around them” to having the same conversation three times to your A players quietly carrying the load
- The three strikes principle and why putting feedback in writing from the first conversation matters
- The three mistakes I have made myself: keeping people out of loyalty, moving them sideways instead of making the call, and waiting for the “perfect time”
- How to actually do it respectfully: keep it under 15 minutes, own it, talk about the role not their character, and be generous where you can
- Why you should never speak badly about someone after they leave, and the reframe that keeping the wrong person, not firing them, is the real failure of leadership
If you have someone in mind right now, someone you keep going back and forth on, this episode will help you find the courage to make the call, be kind about it, and raise the bar for everyone who stays.
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.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend using the code FOUNDR50. Start here → https://your.omnisend.com/foundr
SAVE 95% ON XERO FOR 6 MONTHS Simplify your business finances with 95% off Xero for your first 6 months. Start here → https://foundr.com/xero
GET UP TO $10K IN MATCHED AD CREDITS ON APPLOVIN Scale your DTC brand beyond Meta and Google with up to $10,000 in matched ad credits, plus $1,000 free to test AppLovin. Start here → https://applovin.com/foundr
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
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast
719: The NEW Creator Playbook That Took Me from $80K Debt to $250K/Day | Trybe
Lukas Pakter filmed his bank account and posted it to the internet: $80,000 in debt, $100 to his name, an activewear brand quietly dying. A year and a half later he’s doing over $250,000 a day, on track for …
Notes de l’épisode
Lukas Pakter filmed his bank account and posted it to the internet: $80,000 in debt, $100 to his name, an activewear brand quietly dying. A year and a half later he’s doing over $250,000 a day, on track for $70-80 million this year, and has turned his growth playbook into Trybe - a creator-sales platform now used by over 16,000 brands. The shift that changed everything was a single realisation: making other people money makes you more money. Instead of being the one guy filming TikTok Shop videos, he turned his best customers into an army of sellers - and built the software to run it.
In this interview, Lukas breaks down the creator playbook he learned from his mentor Hudson, why he placed a single purchase order bigger than every PO in his company’s history combined, and the counterintuitive reason older creators are quietly outselling 23-year-olds.
What you’ll learn in this interview:
- The mentor deal everyone told him to refuse: giving away 10% of his company on nothing but a handshake
- The core shift: why making other people money is the fastest way to make your own
- The creator playbook: turning your best customers into a sales army that reaches thousands at once
- Why he runs 8,000 unique creative angles a month - and how he blew past Meta’s ad limit
- The all-in PO: why he ordered more inventory in one quarter than every order in company history combined
- How he landed net-120 payment terms by flying out and showing his manufacturer the technology
- The three pillars of a monster brand: a great product, a great offer, and a great sales team
- Why he gives away equity and 50-100% bonuses to stop competitors poaching his team
- What six failed businesses since age nine taught him about real product-market fit
- Why older creators are outselling college kids - and the trust factor most brands are ignoring
If you’re building a DTC brand, trying to crack creator-led or affiliate sales, or wrestling with how to grow fast without burning cash, this conversation will fundamentally change how you think about risk, creators, and what it actually takes to scale from near-bankrupt to nine figures.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend using the code FOUNDR50. Start here → https://your.omnisend.com/foundr
SAVE 95% ON XERO FOR 6 MONTHS Simplify your business finances with 95% off Xero for your first 6 months. Start here → https://foundr.com/xero
GET UP TO $10K IN MATCHED AD CREDITS ON APPLOVIN Scale your DTC brand beyond Meta and Google with up to $10,000 in matched ad credits, plus $1,000 free to test AppLovin. Start here → https://applovin.com/foundr
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 LUKAS PAKTER Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/lukaspakter/
Website → https://www.lukaspakter.com/
Trybe → https://jointrybe.com/
Haus → https://gohaus.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
718: (Solo) Why Your Profitable Ad Account Isn't Scaling (It's Not Your Ads)
I do a lot of enrollment calls for Foundr Operators, and I keep seeing the same pattern. A founder gets on a call doing a 5 or 6x return, literally printing money, and they will not scale. They are terrified to …
Notes de l’épisode
I do a lot of enrollment calls for Foundr Operators, and I keep seeing the same pattern. A founder gets on a call doing a 5 or 6x return, literally printing money, and they will not scale. They are terrified to spend more. And if I had understood the principle behind this ten years ago, I would have made tens of millions of dollars more. That is a big claim, so hear me out.
Here is what is actually happening: these founders are not bad at business. They are sharp, with great products. But they are making decisions on how they feel and whether they made money on the first purchase. And the fastest growing DTC brands are often the ones losing money on that first sale, scaling aggressively, because they know their back end numbers cold.
In this episode, I break down why a profitable ad account stays small, the numbers you need to know to scale with confidence, and the mindset shift that separates reckless from confident.
Here's what you'll take away:
• Why the real reason you are not scaling is not your ads, your algorithm, or your creative, it is that you do not trust your numbers enough to act on them
• The Dan Kennedy principle that the company that can spend the most to acquire a customer wins, and what it actually means for your ad account
• Why the brands doing $2M to $10M a month are happy to lose money on the front end, and how they know it comes back
• How to track LTV by cohort instead of a blended average that hides everything
• Why your payback period is the number that changes everything psychologically, with a simple example of a "loss" that is actually profit by day 60
• How to build a back end worth betting on, from subscriptions to Rob Ward's Quad Lock ecosystem that sold for half a billion dollarsIf you are sitting on a profitable ad account and not scaling, this episode will show you exactly why, and the four things to work on so you can spend with confidence instead of fear.
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.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend using the code FOUNDR50. Start here → https://your.omnisend.com/foundr
SAVE 95% ON XERO FOR 6 MONTHS Simplify your business finances with 95% off Xero for your first 6 months. Start here → https://foundr.com/xero
GET UP TO $10K IN MATCHED AD CREDITS ON APPLOVIN Scale your DTC brand beyond Meta and Google with up to $10,000 in matched ad credits, plus $1,000 free to test AppLovin. Start here → https://applovin.com/foundr
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
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast
717: We Started Dad Gang with $750 and One Hat - and did $40M in 4 Years
Three best friends put in $250 each - $750 total - printed 100 hats in a garage, and sold out in 36 hours. No following. No ads. No business plan. Four and a half years later, Dad Gang has done over $40 million …
Notes de l’épisode
Three best friends put in $250 each - $750 total - printed 100 hats in a garage, and sold out in 36 hours. No following. No ads. No business plan. Four and a half years later, Dad Gang has done over $40 million in revenue selling hats built around one idea: dads deserve better than goofy, frumpy products that make fatherhood a punchline. The craziest part? Grant, Bart and Ejay still run the entire thing with zero employees, a private Facebook group of 15,000 dads, and an equity partnership with Gary Vaynerchuk - and they're deliberately building it as a lifestyle business, not a rocket ship. In this interview, the founders of Dad Gang break down why they sold one single hat for the first eight months, how they built a fiercely loyal community by refusing to outsource DMs, and the deliberate choice to stay lean while everyone tells them to put their foot on the gas. What you'll learn in this interview: • Why two decades of failed side projects set them up to move fast when Dad Gang hit • The one-hat strategy: why they resisted new colors and SKUs for eight months to nail the brand first • How they turned a 40-day stockout into a community-building engine instead of a disaster • Why they boosted posts at $10 a day for audience growth instead of running conversion ads while sold out • The 15,000-dad private Facebook group that tells them exactly what products to make • Why they still answer every DM, email and comment themselves four and a half years in - no community manager • How staying lean with a 3PL and contractors let them each quit their jobs sooner • Why the hat became a symbol dads connect over offline - and the raw stories that fuel the brand • How the Gary Vee equity partnership came about through years of working with Vayner Sports first • Why they measure success by homes reached and impact on kids, not just revenue If you're building a DTC or community-led brand, wrestling with whether to launch more products or go deeper on one, or questioning whether you have to scale at all costs, this conversation will fundamentally change how you think about community, focus, and building a business around the life you actually want.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend using the code FOUNDR50. Start here → https://your.omnisend.com/foundr
SAVE 95% ON XERO FOR 6 MONTHS Simplify your business finances with 95% off Xero for your first 6 months. Start here → https://foundr.com/xero
GET UP TO $10K IN MATCHED AD CREDITS ON APPLOVIN Scale your DTC brand beyond Meta and Google with up to $10,000 in matched ad credits, plus $1,000 free to test AppLovin. Start here → https://applovin.com/foundr
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 DAD GANG Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/dadgang.co/
Website → https://www.dadgang.co/
Bart's Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/theszef/
Ejay's Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/ejayodonnell/
Grant's Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/geastey/
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
716: Ryan Spent 13 Years Without a Single Breakout Moment - Then Doubled His Whiskey Brand In 6 Months
Ryan Thompson ran a restaurant for 25 years, sold a couple of quick-serve spots, built a financial services company, and even ran a motel before he noticed the craft distillery movement taking off and decided …
Notes de l’épisode
Ryan Thompson ran a restaurant for 25 years, sold a couple of quick-serve spots, built a financial services company, and even ran a motel before he noticed the craft distillery movement taking off and decided someone in Vail, Colorado ought to start one - so it might as well be him. He went to Moonshine University in Kentucky, learned distilling from A to Z, wrote a business plan, and scraped together every dollar he could. Thirteen years later, 10th Mountain Whiskey & Spirit Company makes seven spirits, runs two tasting rooms, and donates to military nonprofits - named in honour of the historic 10th Mountain Division that helped start American skiing (and, as it happens, Nike).
In this episode, Ryan is candid about the unglamorous reality of scaling a spirits brand online: the genuinely bizarre regulatory maze of shipping alcohol across state lines, why his growth has never looked like a hockey stick, and the brick-by-brick philosophy that's quietly doubled his monthly sales.
What you'll learn in this interview:
- Why a 120-seat restaurant and a fixed-bed motel have a hard ceiling on growth - and how that revenue cap is exactly what pulled Ryan toward the uncapped potential of e-commerce
- How he started distilling on a tiny 13-gallon still (nicknamed Old Bessie) to keep early mistakes small and cheap, before scaling to a 500-gallon copper column still
- Why he launched through two tasting rooms first - getting direct, over-the-bar customer feedback for a full year before selling a single bottle online
- The regulatory maze most founders never see: being banned from direct-to-consumer sales entirely, the Washington D.C. licensed-liquor-store workaround, and why his online orders start in Colorado but ship from D.C.
- Why he can only ship directly from his distillery to two states - California and Arizona - and how a fulfilment partner (Rackhouse) handles the rest
- How he turned a tasting-room visitor behaviour (not wanting to check a bag with a bottle in it) into early organic online sales with no ad spend
- The hire that changed everything: spotting 15 years of digital agency experience on a resume submitted for a tasting-room job, and redirecting that person to run marketing instead
- Why his growth has always been slow and steady rather than explosive - and the "nice brick in the wall" mindset of stacking 2-4% conversion improvements instead of chasing a single game-changer
- The real numbers: roughly $20-25K/month before joining Founder Operators in March 2026, climbing toward a $40-50K/month average - close to double - on the back of consistent CRO work
- The most valuable and transferable takeaway: the confidence that the e-commerce skills he's building now could be applied to selling anything, in any industry, on any website
If you're building in a highly regulated or "unsexy" category - or you're frustrated that your growth looks like a slow climb instead of a rocket ship - this episode is for you. Ryan's story is a grounded reminder that steady, compounding improvements and deep conviction in your brand's purpose can build something durable, even when every rule in your industry seems designed to slow you down.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend using the code FOUNDR50. Start here → https://your.omnisend.com/foundr
SAVE 95% ON XERO FOR 6 MONTHS Simplify your business finances with 95% off Xero for your first 6 months. Start here → https://foundr.com/xero
GET UP TO $10K IN MATCHED AD CREDITS ON APPLOVIN Scale your DTC brand beyond Meta and Google with up to $10,000 in matched ad credits, plus $1,000 free to test AppLovin. Start here → https://applovin.com/foundr
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 RYAN THOMPSON Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/10thmtnwhiskey/ Website → https://10thwhiskey.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
715: (Solo) How to Stop Overcomplicating Hiring (My Biggest Mistakes)
Hiring is tough, and I am not going to pretend otherwise. But I was reflecting on this past year, and I have had a much better strike rate lately because of one basic shift. And sometimes it is the basic stuff …
Notes de l’épisode
Hiring is tough, and I am not going to pretend otherwise. But I was reflecting on this past year, and I have had a much better strike rate lately because of one basic shift. And sometimes it is the basic stuff that is easiest to forget.
Here is what hit me on a recent call with a sharp young founder: every contractor on his team came from a referral. Every single one, all proven, all delivering. And when I looked back at my own best hires at Foundr, the pattern was identical. Every person who moved the needle came from a trusted source.
In this episode, I break down why I now only hire referrals or people from our community, why referrals work at a level nothing else can, and how to tap your network even if you do not think you have one.
Here's what you'll take away:
• Why the usual hiring process, job post, 200 applications, interviews, test project, so often ends in a bad hire anyway
• Why a referral is a built-in quality filter no job description or interview can replicate, because the referrer is putting their reputation on the line
• The restaurant analogy that explains why one personal recommendation beats a thousand five-star reviews from strangers
• Why hiring from your own community gets you people who want to be there, not people who just want a job
• How to surface great names fast by asking your existing team, your masterminds, and the founders already working with talent you admire
• The compounding effect: how one great referral hire opens up an entire web of proven, trusted talentIf you have been burned by a bad hire or you are about to start the whole job board process again, this episode will give you a simpler rule that has genuinely improved my hiring, and remind you that the best people are almost never the ones applying.
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.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend using the code FOUNDR50. Start here → https://your.omnisend.com/foundr
SAVE 95% ON XERO FOR 6 MONTHS Simplify your business finances with 95% off Xero for your first 6 months. Start here → http://foundr.com/xero
GET UP TO $10K IN MATCHED AD CREDITS ON APPLOVIN Scale your DTC brand beyond Meta and Google with up to $10,000 in matched ad credits, plus $1,000 free to test AppLovin. Start here → https://applovin.com/foundr
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
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast
714: From $0 to $5 BILLION - The Blueprint for Building Billion-Dollar Startups | Marc Lore
Marc Lore walked into his boss's office with a newborn at home, a huge salary, and no business idea - and quit anyway to become an entrepreneur. That instinct built one of the great modern track records in …
Notes de l’épisode
Marc Lore walked into his boss's office with a newborn at home, a huge salary, and no business idea - and quit anyway to become an entrepreneur. That instinct built one of the great modern track records in commerce. He sold diapers.com to Amazon, turned a pitch deck into a $3.3 billion Walmart acquisition in under two years, became Walmart's e-commerce CEO, bought the Minnesota Timberwolves, launched a next-gen restaurant company called Wonder, and is now building Telosa - a city from scratch for 5 million people in the desert. All from a kid who told his grandma he wanted to be a farmer because farmers "grow stuff from nothing." In this interview, Marc breaks down the conviction it takes to sell a product below cost until you win, the hiring and comp framework that let him scale companies fast, and the counterintuitive negotiating lesson behind two of his biggest deals. What you'll learn in this interview: • Why he quit a high-paying job with a newborn and no idea - and the mentor who funded him anyway • The diapers.com thesis: why selling below cost was the whole strategy, and where most founders lose their nerve • What going inside Amazon taught him - that there's no right culture, only a consistent one • How growing through Amazon's brutal 30%-off diaper war is what made them overpay for the company • The transparent comp system: same pay per level, Black-Scholes-priced options, and how it let him hire fast • Why selling to Walmart felt completely different to selling to Amazon - keys to the kingdom vs. sit in the corner • The negotiating masterclass: why knowing when NOT to negotiate landed both the Timberwolves and Wonder • Inside Wonder: 17 restaurant chains in Mercedes vans that cook and deliver at a tenth of a restaurant's CapEx • Why conversational commerce kills the search engine - and how he's skating to where the puck is going • The Telosa vision: buying 200,000 acres to test a fairer model of capitalism and a $50 billion city wealth fund If you're building a startup, wrestling with the conviction to hold your vision when it looks crazy, or just want a masterclass in thinking bigger from one of the boldest operators in commerce, this conversation will fundamentally change how you think about risk, culture, and building things that grow from nothing.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend using the code FOUNDR50. Start here → https://your.omnisend.com/foundr
SAVE 95% ON XERO FOR 6 MONTHS Simplify your business finances with 95% off Xero for your first 6 months. Start here → https://foundr.com/xero
GET UP TO $10K IN MATCHED AD CREDITS ON APPLOVIN Scale your DTC brand beyond Meta and Google with up to $10,000 in matched ad credits, plus $1,000 free to test AppLovin. Start here → https://applovin.com/foundr
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 MARC LORE Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/marclore/ LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/marclore
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
713: (Solo) The Black Friday Profit Trap and How to Avoid It This Year
We are all gearing up for Black Friday Cyber Monday, and if you have not started planning yet, you need to. Here is a story that will stop you in your tracks: a founder in our community did $1 million over …
Notes de l’épisode
We are all gearing up for Black Friday Cyber Monday, and if you have not started planning yet, you need to. Here is a story that will stop you in your tracks: a founder in our community did $1 million over Black Friday Cyber Monday a few years ago and barely broke even. Not an exaggeration. A million dollars in revenue and almost nothing to show for it.
Here is the trap: you have a massive sales month and it looks incredible, but nobody models what that revenue actually cost. Peak November ad prices, your deepest discount of the year, cogs, shipping, returns, platform fees. Most founders plan the sale but never plan the profit.
In this episode, I break down what actually happened last year with real data, the three clocks that are already running before Black Friday, and the exact framework we shared with our Foundr Operators members at our in-person event.
Here's what you'll take away:
• The three clocks running right now, attention, inventory, and shipping, and why by November the biggest decisions have already been made for you • The real numbers: how CPMs nearly doubled from September to November while you are discounting harder than any other time of year • Why 42% of Black Friday revenue came from email and SMS, and why your own channels are the closest thing to pure margin in Q4 • Move one: sell early while attention is cheap, and how the 13% of brands that ran October promotions had the field to themselves • Move two: the exact send cadence for the first and last day of your campaign that feels uncomfortable but makes the most money • Why the founders who win Black Friday are never the ones who spend the most in November
If you are planning your biggest sales period of the year right now, this episode will help you plan for profit instead of just revenue, and build the audience that will actually be waiting to buy when CPMs double.
Quick heads up: this episode mentions our partners at Omnisend for email and SMS, and there is a special offer for listeners at omnisend.com/foundr.
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.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend using the code FOUNDR50. Start here → https://your.omnisend.com/foundr
SAVE 95% ON XERO FOR 6 MONTHS Simplify your business finances with 95% off Xero for your first 6 months. Start here → https://foundr.com/xero
GET UP TO $10K IN MATCHED AD CREDITS ON APPLOVIN
Scale your DTC brand beyond Meta and Google with up to $10,000 in matched ad credits, plus $1,000 free to test AppLovin.
Start here → https://applovin.com/foundrWANT 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
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast
712: The Near-Death Experience That Built a $400M Year Business
Matt Pohlson was clinically dead for four and a half minutes. His heart had stopped, the doctor had already called it, and 40 ICU staff had gathered at the window like a silent choir when his mother refused to …
Notes de l’épisode
Matt Pohlson was clinically dead for four and a half minutes. His heart had stopped, the doctor had already called it, and 40 ICU staff had gathered at the window like a silent choir when his mother refused to let them stop fighting.
He came back - and the clarity from that experience reshaped his entire company. Omaze, the platform he co-founded to raise money for charity by giving everyday people the chance to win once-in-a-lifetime experiences, has sent people to be mentored by Michelle Obama, ride a tank with Arnold Schwarzenegger, and win a Lamborghini handed over by the Pope. After Matt's near-death experience, he made the hard decision to kill the parts of the business he loved most - and grew revenue over 500% while increasing headcount just 10%.
In this interview, Matt breaks down the counterintuitive focus decision that unlocked Omaze's explosive growth, the controversial charity philosophy of chasing dollars over percentages, and what flatlining taught him about fear, decisions, and building a company that scales optimism.
What you'll learn in this interview:
- The near-death experience that reset how he leads - and why he calls death his best friend and travel companion
- Why he killed the celebrity-experience model he loved - cutting from 300 campaigns a year to 50 - and went all in on "Omaze Owned"
- How a Daniel Craig campaign meant to raise $300K pulled $2.1 million - and the test that revealed the car mattered more than the celebrity
- How revenue grew over 500% on just a 10% headcount increase - and the focus principle behind it
- The controversial charity philosophy: why chasing dollars to the charity, not percentages, is what the nonprofit space actually needs
- The exact economics of both models - 60% to charity on celebrity campaigns, guaranteed 15% on prize campaigns - and who carries the risk
- How to actually partner with A-list talent: running the real numbers before giving away 5-10% of your company for star power
- Why the biggest decisions don't get better the more people you ask - and his "when you don't know what to do, do nothing" rule
- Virtues over values: why what your team does matters more than what they believe - and how he rebuilt culture at eight people
- Why nothing is ever as bad as the fear of it - and how replacing fear with love changed how he operates
If you're building a mission-driven business, wrestling with whether to focus or diversify, or trying to lead through the kind of pressure that breaks most founders, this conversation will fundamentally change how you think about fear, focus, and building something that genuinely scales good in the world.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend using the code FOUNDR50. Start here → https://your.omnisend.com/foundr
SAVE 95% ON XERO FOR 6 MONTHS Simplify your business finances with 95% off Xero for your first 6 months. Start here → https://foundr.com/xero
GET UP TO $10K IN MATCHED AD CREDITS ON APPLOVIN
Scale your DTC brand beyond Meta and Google with up to $10,000 in matched ad credits, plus $1,000 free to test AppLovin.
Start here → https://applovin.com/foundrWANT 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 MATT POHLSON Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/mattpohlson/ Website → https://www.omaze.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
711: Natasha Quit Her 9-To-5 In June - Her Drink Bottle Brand Now Does $15K/Month
Natasha was on maternity leave with a newborn who cried until he was five months old, permanently thirsty, and completely fed up that the one drink bottle she owned had grown mould. She switched to drinking …
Notes de l’épisode
Natasha was on maternity leave with a newborn who cried until he was five months old, permanently thirsty, and completely fed up that the one drink bottle she owned had grown mould. She switched to drinking from a glass - hardly practical with two small kids - and mentioned to a friend, in passing, that she needed to find something better. Three or four weeks later that friend circled back: "That drink bottle thing you mentioned - are you still doing it?" That one question convinced Natasha there were more people like her out there. She launched Mode & Opal in late 2025 with a background in graphic design and corporate management, but zero e-commerce experience.
In this episode, Natasha gets tactical about the moves that actually moved the needle: mining competitor reviews to design her offer, taking a product almost straight off the shelf to launch fast, and the single $3,900 press release that generated an estimated $400,000 in PR value and roughly 9 million views.
What you'll learn in this interview:
- How a passing conversation with a friend - not a formal validation process - was the moment Natasha knew there was a real market for a better drink bottle
- Why she deliberately skipped long product development, took a well-reviewed bottle almost straight off Alibaba, and had her colours locked by the second sample - because her own frustration meant speed mattered more than perfection
- The competitor-review mining strategy: reading one- and two-star reviews of big-brand bottles to find the exact pain points (hard-to-clean straws, no replacement parts, leaking) and designing around them
- How she engineered average order value from day one - free replacement seals, stainless steel straw upgrades, and "buy two, get a free straw" offers that cost her little but felt valuable, instead of a discount pop-up that eats margin
- Why a free-gift threshold beat a free-shipping threshold for pushing AOV - and how many of her customers naturally buy 3 to 4 bottles at once for husbands and kids
- The single best marketing decision she made: investing $3,900 in a professional press release that landed 22+ placements, including a national airline magazine and a full-page newspaper article
- What that PR wave actually did - an estimated $400K in PR value, ~9 million cumulative views, and 20 sales in a single day when the story first ran
- How she repurposed the press coverage into her best-performing meta ad - a "the bottle New Zealanders can't stop talking about" angle with a 10% click-through rate and a lifetime ROAS over 4, still running today
- The exact growth curve after joining Founder: from $3,400 in April to $18,500 in August - roughly 400% growth - and settling into consistent $15K+ months as a solo operator
- How she runs the whole business lean - on her phone, at night, around her kids, using Claude-built AI agents to implement what she learns - and why her next strategic move is a consumable product to unlock subscriptions and lifetime value
If you come from a creative or corporate background and assume e-commerce is a closed world you could never break into, this episode is for you. Natasha's story is a sharp, practical reminder that deep customer empathy, a well-built offer, and one well-placed PR bet can do more than a big budget - and that you can build something real in the margins of a busy life with young kids.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend using the code FOUNDR50. Start here → https://your.omnisend.com/foundr
SAVE 95% ON XERO FOR 6 MONTHS Simplify your business finances with 95% off Xero for your first 6 months. Start here → https://foundr.com/xero
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 NATASHA BURGER Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/mode_and_opal/ Website → https://www.modeandopal.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
710: (Solo) I Asked 10 Billionaires The Same Question - Here's What They Said
Over 12 years of interviewing more than 100 billionaires, I started asking every one of them the same question: if you lost everything tomorrow, the money, the brand, the team, and you had to start completely …
Notes de l’épisode
Over 12 years of interviewing more than 100 billionaires, I started asking every one of them the same question: if you lost everything tomorrow, the money, the brand, the team, and you had to start completely from scratch, what would you do first? Richard Branson, Mark Cuban, Drew Houston, Kendra Scott, people who built billion dollar companies from nothing.
Here is what struck me: ten billionaires, ten different industries, ten completely different answers on the surface. But underneath every single one was the exact same thing, and it is probably not what you would expect.
In this episode, I share all ten answers, from Kendra Scott turning $500 into a billion dollar empire to Jamie Kern Lima betting on the thing everyone saw as her weakness, and the one pattern that connects them all.
Here's what you'll take away:
• Why Richard Branson's instant answer was "find the right people," and how that is exactly how Virgin was built across a hundred industries • Drew Houston on why founders have to be learning machines, and why the gap between where you are and where you want to be is almost always a knowledge gap • Mark Cuban's counterintuitive advice to follow your effort, not your passion, and why the distinction matters • How Jamie Kern Lima wiped off her makeup on live TV and turned the thing she was hiding into the reason customers trusted her • Tony Robbins on why 80% of success is psychology and only 20% is mechanics • The single pattern underneath all ten answers, and the one question to ask yourself if you are stuck spinning your wheels on tactics
If you are stuck on funnels, tools, and tactics right now, this episode will reframe where your real starting line actually is, because the answer is almost never another tool. It is always another person.
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.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend using the code FOUNDR50. Start here → https://your.omnisend.com/foundr
SAVE 95% ON XERO FOR 6 MONTHS Simplify your business finances with 95% off Xero for your first 6 months. Start here → https://foundr.com/xero
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
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast
709: AI Agents: The Only Skill That Matters in 2026 (Masterclass)
Ari Meisel spent 15 years teaching founders to do less. He's worked with over 300 assistants and once ran his business on a single hour of work a day after Crohn's disease nearly took him out. Now AI has …
Notes de l’épisode
Ari Meisel spent 15 years teaching founders to do less. He's worked with over 300 assistants and once ran his business on a single hour of work a day after Crohn's disease nearly took him out. Now AI has changed the game entirely. He's running 32 AI agents across six different companies, has two agents that have been working nonstop for over 160 days, and rebuilt an entire DTC customer service operation with agents - taking first response time from 25 minutes to 44 seconds while cutting costs from over $20,000 a month to under $4,000. He's already cancelled rounds of hiring because the agents got there first. In this interview, Ari breaks down exactly how he builds and deploys autonomous AI agents, why delegation - not prompting - is the only skill that matters, and the operational principle that survives even when every tool you use becomes obsolete. What you'll learn in this interview: • Why delegation, not prompting, is the real skill - and why "the 25-word prompt that 10x's your business" is nonsense • The AI chief of staff blueprint: the 17-page framework Ari gives every agent before it does anything • The full customer service rebuild: from 25-minute response times to 44 seconds, and $20K a month to under $4K • The roles he's stopped hiring for entirely - and how agents cancelled a stack of project management interviews • How he splits one overloaded agent into a supervisor and a frontend CSR when performance drops - just like managing people • Why he gives every agent 18 foundational rules to stop it hallucinating or going off the rails • How to actually see what your agents are doing: the Trello Kanban system that turns 32 agents into ten-second decisions • The self-improving sales agent: how it rewrote its own script through seven versions in ten minutes across eight testers • Why the "nightly knowledge card" is the one thing that makes every tool replaceable • How an agent handled his kid's camp waiver from a text message while he sat in a meeting If you're a founder trying to reclaim your time, an operator curious about deploying AI agents without breaking things, or anyone who wants the real technical playbook behind autonomous AI, this conversation will fundamentally change how you think about delegation, systems, and what "work" even means going forward.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend using the code FOUNDR50. Start here → https://your.omnisend.com/foundr
SAVE 95% ON XERO FOR 6 MONTHS Simplify your business finances with 95% off Xero for your first 6 months. Start here → https://foundr.com/xero 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 ARI MEISEL Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/arimeisel/ LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/productivity-coach-entrepreneur Website → https://lessdoingacademy.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
708: (Solo) What Nobody Tells You About Scaling Past $1M, $5M, and $10M
Every stage of business breaks you in a different way, and nobody warns you which thing is about to break. So it always feels like you are the only one who cannot figure it out. You are not. The game just …
Notes de l’épisode
Every stage of business breaks you in a different way, and nobody warns you which thing is about to break. So it always feels like you are the only one who cannot figure it out. You are not. The game just changed and nobody told you.
Here is the pattern I have seen after building Foundr for over a decade and interviewing 700 founders: the person who gets you to $1 million is not the same person who gets you to $10 million. Each milestone demands you become someone new, and the hardest part is never the strategy. It is the identity shift.
In this episode, I break down the three revenue walls, the million dollar wall, the five million wall, and the ten million wall, and exactly what changes and what breaks at each one.
Here's what you'll take away:
• The million dollar wall: why revenue plateaus because there is only one of you, and why letting go is emotionally brutal • The five million wall: the boring systems nobody wants to build, and why culture becomes a choice you make every day or it decays • The hire I tolerated for 18 months because I wanted to be liked, and how "what you walk past, you endorse" poisoned the whole team • The ten million wall: why the thing that breaks is not the business, it is your identity, and the transition from founder to CEO • Why imposter syndrome gets louder at eight figures, not quieter, and the cruel paradox that growing faster means doing less • The one piece of advice from a founder at peace with his business: only sell if you have something else you actually want to do
If you are hitting a ceiling right now and cannot work out why, this episode will help you identify which wall you are approaching and who you need to become to get through 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.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend using the code FOUNDR50. Start here → https://your.omnisend.com/foundr
SAVE 95% ON XERO FOR 6 MONTHS Simplify your business finances with 95% off Xero for your first 6 months. Start here → https://foundr.com/xero
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
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast
707: How Two Aussies Took On Samsonite & Rimowa - and Won ($100M+)
Athan Didaskalou had bet everything on a one-year-old suitcase brand called July. Then Covid wiped out travel and nearly took the business with it. What happened next turned it into a nine-figure global …
Notes de l’épisode
Athan Didaskalou had bet everything on a one-year-old suitcase brand called July. Then Covid wiped out travel and nearly took the business with it. What happened next turned it into a nine-figure global company. Athan came from the agency world and sold out of two businesses to go all in; his co-founder Richard Li brought the manufacturing and supply chain muscle. They chose luggage precisely because it was hard to make and dominated by a single global player. They survived lockdown on drink bottles, kept every team member, and came out the other side with a two-year head start no competitor dared to challenge. Today July has 15 tier-one retail stores in Australia, is the official luggage of the Australian Olympic Team, and is pushing into Asia, the US and beyond.
In this interview, Athan breaks down his theory of why founder-led brands beat private-equity ones, the "irrational spend" that built July's brand equity from day one, and the counterintuitive reason physical retail became their cheapest customer acquisition channel.
What you'll learn in this interview: • Why July was their "15th race" - and how years of prior businesses made them lethal from day one • The irrational spend theory: why founder-led brands beat PE brands by overspending in emotional areas • How they landed the four-letter July domain and sub-five-letter social handles - and why it signals trust • Why luggage is a trust business - and how brand became their moat against the dominant global player • How drink bottles and personalization kept the wheels turning when Covid wiped out travel overnight • Why the two-year Covid shutdown handed them a head start no competitor was willing to challenge • The investor who wrote a cheque with zero due diligence - after they drove out to fix a customer's lock • Why retail became their cheapest customer acquisition channel - and the rent-to-revenue math behind it • Why the US rewards short-domain, free-returns DTC brands - and why the UK has been so much harder to crack • Why staying deliberately small is getting harder - and the first year they stopped knowing every employee's name
If you're building a DTC or consumer brand, trying to compete against a dominant incumbent, or rethinking whether retail belongs in your growth plan, this conversation will fundamentally change how you think about brand equity, resilience, and building something people actually trust.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend using the code FOUNDR50. Start here → https://your.omnisend.com/foundr
SAVE 95% ON XERO FOR 6 MONTHS Simplify your business finances with 95% off Xero for your first 6 months. Start here → https://foundr.com/xero 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 ATHAN DIDASKALOU Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/july/ LinkedIn → https://au.linkedin.com/in/athand Website → https://july.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
706: Jay Hated His Plumbing Job - Now He Sells Beach Pools and did $50K in a Month
Jay Haddad hated being a plumber. He lived for the weekends - free diving, waterfalls, surfing, the beach - and when he and his wife had their first daughter at 23, the outdoor life they'd promised each other …
Notes de l’épisode
Jay Haddad hated being a plumber. He lived for the weekends - free diving, waterfalls, surfing, the beach - and when he and his wife had their first daughter at 23, the outdoor life they'd promised each other suddenly got hard. On his first Father's Day, they bought some fabric from Spotlight, watched a YouTube tutorial on how to thread his mother-in-law's dusty sewing machine, and made a waterproof beach pool so their daughter had somewhere safe to play. Strangers on the beach kept stopping to ask where they could buy one. That was the moment Sunny Seekers began - with zero e-commerce experience and a first sewing attempt Jay describes as shocking.
In this episode, Jay is unusually raw about the whole grind: a year of failed fabric testing, three supplier disasters in a row, the brutal reality of a seasonal product, and the personal toll of three hours of sleep a night that nearly broke him before he learned to build sustainably.
What you'll learn in this interview:
- How the product idea came straight from Jay and his wife's own friction as new parents - and why being your own target customer can be its own form of validation
- The scrappiest possible start: a first prototype sewn on a borrowed machine, tested at the beach, validated by strangers walking past asking where to buy one
- Why sewing in a circle nearly defeated them - and how the DIY version proved the concept before a single dollar went to a factory
- The year lost to fabric testing: sourcing waterproof fabric on Alibaba, missing an entire summer season, and why Jay is still glad they waited to get it right
- How he used Alibaba's "request for quotation" feature to find a manufacturer for a product nobody had made before - and didn't even know what search terms to use
- The unit economics that made it a real business: fabric alone cost $130+ per pool in Australia, but a finished unit from overseas landed at ~$25 and sold for $115
- Selling out the first 200 units in a month before Christmas 2024 - and the nagging question that haunted the whole next year: do people buy this after the holidays, or only as gifts?
- Three separate supplier nightmares - loose threads on 200 units, a botched print at the wrong scale, leaking carry bags ironed shut by hand - and how he pushed through each one right before peak season
- The Black Friday scaling playbook: starting at $10/day on meta, doubling ad spend as orders doubled, reaching $1,000/day, and hitting a record $50K month in December 2025
- The hardest lesson of a seasonal brand: how post-Christmas ads got expensive fast, why he was left holding stock and no cash through winter, and what he changed about looking after himself mentally to survive the off-season
If you've boxed yourself into an identity - your trade, your job title, the industry you happen to be in - and quietly wonder whether you could build something of your own, this episode is for you. Jay had no network, no experience, and no idea how to sew. His story is a grounded reminder that the unglamorous grind of prototypes, supplier failures, and slow seasons is exactly what turns someone from "a guy sewing in the back of the house" into a founder.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend using the code FOUNDR50. Start here → https://your.omnisend.com/foundr
SAVE 95% ON XERO FOR 6 MONTHS Simplify your business finances with 95% off Xero for your first 6 months. Start here → https://foundr.com/xero
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 JAY HADDAD Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/sunnyseekers_/ Website → https://sunnyseekers.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
705: (Solo) How Success Made Me Neglect the Thing That Built Everything
I am going to tell you about the dumbest thing I have done in 12 years of building Foundr. It is not a bad hire or a failed launch. It is something far more dangerous, because I did not even realise I was doing …
Notes de l’épisode
I am going to tell you about the dumbest thing I have done in 12 years of building Foundr. It is not a bad hire or a failed launch. It is something far more dangerous, because I did not even realise I was doing it. For four years I took my eye off the thing that built this entire business, and by the time I noticed, I had left years of growth on the table.
Here is the trap: when your monetisation engine is printing money, it gives you permission to be complacent about the thing that is actually feeding it. The better the downstream business performed, the less attention we gave the upstream asset driving all of it.
In this episode, I get honest about how our podcast drifted into autopilot for years, the signals that told me my core was neglected, and the aggressive refocus that brought it back.
Here's what you'll take away:
• Why "fine" can be the most dangerous word in business, and how success itself makes you complacent about what got you there • The four warning signs your core product is drifting, from flattening growth to customer feedback getting generic • Why your best people gravitate to the new shiny thing and your core quietly gets the B team • What Gary Vaynerchuk told me about never being complacent when one channel is winning, and why I resisted it at first • The packaging lesson that blew my mind: how two identical-quality episodes got wildly different results based on title and thumbnail alone • The three question test I now run on every new initiative to tell a real opportunity from a distraction in disguise
If things in your business are going "fine" right now, this episode is a warning worth heeding. Ask yourself when you last personally touched your core product and obsessed over making it better, because if it is not recent, you might already be on autopilot.
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.
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Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend using the code FOUNDR50. Start here → https://your.omnisend.com/foundr
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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
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast
704: How One Pivot Turned My FAILING Startup Into a $300M Brand
Mariam Naficy sold her first company for over $100 million in cash - two weeks before the Nasdaq crashed in 2000. Then she did something harder. She built Minted, a crowdsourced design marketplace her own …
Notes de l’épisode
Mariam Naficy sold her first company for over $100 million in cash - two weeks before the Nasdaq crashed in 2000. Then she did something harder. She built Minted, a crowdsourced design marketplace her own investors thought was weird, watched it generate zero sales for its first month, and was one day away from shutting it down when it turned the corner and took off like a rocket ship. Today Minted does around $300 million a year, and she's now chairwoman while building her third company, Arcade, an AI-to-physical-product marketplace that's already raised $42 million. In this interview, Mariam breaks down why she handed product decisions entirely over to the crowd, how she survived the 2008 financial crisis by going premium, and the viral loop she deliberately engineers into every business she starts. What you'll learn in this interview: • How she landed the Eve.com domain with 1% equity, a board seat, and a Disneyland trip - for a five-year-old • Why color cosmetics flying off the shelves revealed a market nobody thought existed online • How a low-budget crowdsourced design contest saved Minted from bankruptcy after a month of zero sales • Why she trusted the crowd over industry experts - and invented the photo Save the Date in the process • How going premium let Minted grow straight through the 2008 financial crisis • The virality principle: why she won't start a business without a built-in product-driven loop • Why every hire - even designers - had to pass a financial modeling test • How she scaled greeting cards into Target and Whole Foods - and why home decor didn't work • The exact mindset that got her through nearly shutting down: stop caring what anyone thinks • Why Arcade is built to protect artists' livelihoods in the age of AI If you're building a marketplace, wrestling with whether to trust your gut or your customers, or trying to grow through a downturn without burning cash, this conversation will fundamentally change how you think about virality, community, and persisting through the moments that break most founders.
SAVE 95% ON XERO FOR 6 MONTHS Simplify your business finances with 95% off Xero for your first 6 months. Start here → https://foundr.com/xero
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend using the code FOUNDR50. Start here → https://your.omnisend.com/foundr
SAVE 95% ON XERO FOR 6 MONTHS Simplify your business finances with 95% off Xero for your first 6 months. Start here → http://foundr.com/xero
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 MARIAM NAFICY Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/mnaficy/ LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariam-naficy Website → https://www.minted.com/ Website → https://tonic.xyz/
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
703: (Solo) If I Had to Start Over in 2026, Here's How I'd Make My First $1M
If I lost everything tomorrow, the team, the audience, the network, here's the exact tactical playbook I'd use to build back to $1 million from scratch. If I lost everything tomorrow, the team, the audience …
Notes de l’épisode
If I lost everything tomorrow, the team, the audience, the network, here's the exact tactical playbook I'd use to build back to $1 million from scratch.
If I lost everything tomorrow, the team, the audience, the brand, the 13 years of relationships and network I have built, and I had to make $1 million from zero, here is exactly what I would do. This is not a motivational pep talk. It is the real, tactical, step by step playbook with no fluff.
Here is the thing most founders get backwards: they build the product, then go looking for customers. You need to flip it. Find the customers first, then build the product.
In this episode, I walk through the whole 0 to $1 million playbook, from how I would validate a physical product before spending a dollar on inventory to why founder-led content is the one thing I would do differently if I started over.
Here's what you'll take away:
• The exact three step validation process I would run before ordering a single unit, including why three star reviews are where the gold is • Why you need somewhere for your money to go before you make your first dollar, and how flying blind on cash flow nearly cost me early on • The one product, one channel rule and why trying to be everywhere is the mistake I see founders make constantly • The product economics I would insist on: 70% margins minimum and an AOV above $60 so paid ads can actually work • The pricing mistake I made on Foundr's Kickstarter that cost us thousands, and how to avoid it • My single biggest regret with Foundr: hiding behind the brand for ten years, and why I would make my face the brand from day one
If you are thinking about starting something, or you are stuck spinning your wheels on a brand that has not taken off, this episode gives you the clean, no-nonsense sequence I would follow to get to that first million.
Quick heads up: this episode is brought to you in partnership with Xero, the accounting software I have used to run Foundr since day one, and they have put together a genuinely strong offer for listeners in the show notes.
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.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend using the code FOUNDR50. Start here → https://your.omnisend.com/foundr
SAVE 95% ON XERO FOR 6 MONTHS Simplify your business finances with 95% off Xero for your first 6 months. Start here → https://foundr.com/xero
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
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast
702: Mark Cuban Calls Us His BEST Shark Tank Deal Ever ($200M+)
Four childhood friends pooled $30,000 in a Chicago apartment to make wet wipes for men. Everyone told them dudes would never use them. Thirteen years later, Dude Wipes does close to $220 million in retail …
Notes de l’épisode
Four childhood friends pooled $30,000 in a Chicago apartment to make wet wipes for men. Everyone told them dudes would never use them. Thirteen years later, Dude Wipes does close to $220 million in retail sales, runs on a team of just over 20 people, and is Mark Cuban's best-ever Shark Tank investment. They bootstrapped almost the entire way, none of them had retail experience, and they built a nine-figure business in a category the legacy players weren't even watching. In this interview, Ryan Meegan breaks down how they carried a business to $40 million with just three people, the guerrilla news-jacking playbook that made Dude Wipes a worldwide Twitter trend for pennies, and why brand marketing they never tried to measure was the smartest bet they made. What you'll learn in this interview: • Why four founders with different skill sets and zero egos never clashed in 15 years • How they got their first national retail deal with Kroger through pure cold-calling hustle • The Shark Tank bidding war that landed Mark Cuban's check - and why he calls it his best investment • Why going viral and trending #3 worldwide on Twitter barely moved sales - and why they kept doing it anyway • The Isaiah Crowell NFL moment: how a $3,500 deal turned into ESPN, Howard Stern, and national press • The Amex float strategy: how putting every PO on a credit card funded growth without big raises • Why they refused the VC and Shopify-loan path most DTC brands take - and how they built bank credibility instead • The line-extension trap: why deodorant and body wash failed, and how Covid refocused them on flushable wipes • How three people ran the business to $40M before hiring 15 more • Why they took private equity from TSG while keeping control - and the billion-dollar goal behind it If you're bootstrapping a CPG brand, trying to build awareness without a war chest, or wrestling with whether to chase line extensions or go deeper in your core category, this conversation will fundamentally change how you think about brand, capital efficiency, and staying in the game long enough to win.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend using the code FOUNDR50. Start here → https://your.omnisend.com/foundr
SAVE 95% ON XERO FOR 6 MONTHS Simplify your business finances with 95% off Xero for your first 6 months. Start here → https://foundr.com/xero
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 DUDE WIPES Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/dudewipes/ Website → https://dudewipes.com/ Ryan's LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-meegan-07971859/
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
701: Trieu Doubled His Brand To $200K/Month In 5 Months - Whilst Still Working Full Time
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 …
Notes de l’épisode
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.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend using the code FOUNDR50. Start here → https://your.omnisend.com/foundr
SAVE 95% ON XERO FOR 6 MONTHS Simplify your business finances with 95% off Xero for your first 6 months. Start here → https://foundr.com/xero
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 TRIEU TON LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/trieu-ton-3b7055122/ Website → https://heroloupes.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
700: (Solo) The Ambassador Strategy - How to get Famous People to Sell Your Brand for Free
I interviewed the founder of HexClad about a year ago. Cookware, pots and pans, not the sexiest category in the world. But their ambassador is Gordon Ramsay, one of the most famous chefs on the planet. And when …
Notes de l’épisode
I interviewed the founder of HexClad about a year ago. Cookware, pots and pans, not the sexiest category in the world. But their ambassador is Gordon Ramsay, one of the most famous chefs on the planet. And when he holds up your pan, you do not need to explain anything else. So here is the question nobody asks: how does a cookware brand get Gordon Ramsay without a massive ad budget or a celebrity agency on retainer?
Here is the answer: a genuinely great product and a strategy. The same strategy I have used to build Foundr for over a decade and that I apply to every brand I advise.
In this episode, I break down the ambassador playbook step by step so you can get respected people in your market to endorse your brand, even if you are starting with zero audience and zero connections.
Here's what you'll take away:
• The three pillars of a brand that breaks through: a genuinely great product, next level design, and ambassadors • The "who's who in the zoo" framework for identifying the 10 to 30 people your customer already trusts • Why the gatekeeper is not an obstacle but your way through the door, and how to treat them accordingly • The follow up strategy that got me Barbara Corcoran after two years and how one question reframes "no" into "not right now" • The Amazon coming soon hack that lets you offer distribution instead of asking for a favour, and how it landed me Tim Ferriss and Tony Robbins • Why ambassadors are not a "later, once we're big enough" thing, and how each one you land makes the next one easier
If you have been assuming that big-name endorsements are reserved for brands with big budgets, this episode will show you exactly why they are not, and give you a concrete list to start working through this week.
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.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend using the code FOUNDR50. Start here → https://your.omnisend.com/foundr
SAVE 95% ON XERO FOR 6 MONTHS Simplify your business finances with 95% off Xero for your first 6 months. Start here → https://foundr.com/xero
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
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast
699: A Pizza Oven Saved My Life - Then It Built a $100M Company
Tom Gozney hit rock bottom with addiction at 21 and spent nearly a year in a South African rehab facility. What saved him back home wasn't a business plan - it was a brick oven he dug into his garden, because …
Notes de l’épisode
Tom Gozney hit rock bottom with addiction at 21 and spent nearly a year in a South African rehab facility. What saved him back home wasn't a business plan - it was a brick oven he dug into his garden, because cooking pizza for his friends was the only way he could socialise without alcohol at the centre of it. He noticed something: after a few weeks, people stopped bringing beer and started bringing toppings. That shift in behaviour became the entire thesis of the brand. Fifteen years later, Gozney is valued at over $100 million, did $8.5 million in the first four hours of its Dome launch, and forged the portable pizza oven category from scratch. In this interview, Tom breaks down why he redesigned a fully tooled product weeks before shipping after watching a Steve Jobs documentary, how a synchronised Instagram launch with 30 influencers generated 27,000 signups, and the imposter syndrome that made him underprice his own ovens for years. What you'll learn in this interview: • Why he says he's selling a shift in human behaviour, not hardware or pizza • How he got his first oven sale by leaflet-dropping a restaurant with genuinely terrible branding • The £5K loan from his mum that funded the first fibreglass mould and website • Why he scrapped a fully tooled steel design weeks before shipping - and retooled it in silicone in a month • The Richard Branson exchange that put an oven on Necker Island and fuelled the Rockbox launch • The synchronised 30-influencer Instagram drop that drove 27,000 signups before a single unit shipped • How the Dome launch did $8.5M in four hours, crashed the site, and triggered death threats over a pizza oven • Why going straight to big factories doesn't work before you've proven volume - and how middlemen killed his early margins • How he rebuilt his entire supply chain by recruiting a board and COO who'd done it in outdoor grilling • Why imposter syndrome made him underprice for years - and what finally gave him conviction to charge premium If you're building a physical product brand, wrestling with manufacturing and margins you don't yet understand, or scared to price for the value you've actually built, this conversation will fundamentally change how you think about brand, product obsession, and building something bigger than yourself.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend using the code FOUNDR50. Start here → https://your.omnisend.com/foundr
SAVE 95% ON XERO FOR 6 MONTHS Simplify your business finances with 95% off Xero for your first 6 months. Start here → https://foundr.com/xero 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 TOM GOZNEY Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/tomgozney/ Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/gozney/ Website → https://www.gozney.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
698: (Solo) She Worked 7 Hours a Day & Made Zero Sales - This Was The Fix
I got on a call recently with a founder in our community who had everything right. Amazing product, clear gap in the market, strong differentiators, all the boxes ticked. But she had no sales. So I asked her to …
Notes de l’épisode
I got on a call recently with a founder in our community who had everything right. Amazing product, clear gap in the market, strong differentiators, all the boxes ticked. But she had no sales. So I asked her to walk me through her days, and she said she was doing seven hour days posting on TikTok, Instagram, running Facebook ads, trying everything. And I told her that was the problem right there.
Here is what I keep seeing: the number one reason new brands fail at marketing is not a bad product. It is scattered focus. Every guru on the internet is telling you to be everywhere, and when you try to do everything, you become mediocre at all of it.
In this episode, I make the case for doing less and break down the exact framework I gave her: one product, one channel, one message, to one customer avatar.
Here's what you'll take away:
- Why scattered focus, not a bad product, is what kills most new brands, and how to spot it in your own business
- The one product principle: why obsessing over a single hero product beats spreading yourself across ten SKUs
- Why there is no wrong channel to start with, and how to pick the one to go all in on
- The hard lesson I learned building Foundr on the back of one channel I did not actually own
- Why most founders underprice their product, and how pricing can be the difference between a campaign that scales and one that never does
- Why the company that can afford to spend the most to acquire a customer wins, and how your unit economics decide that fight
If you have got a great product but nothing is sticking, this episode will show you why, and give you a simple four step filter to focus everything down to what will actually move the needle.
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.
SAVE 50% ON OMNISEND FOR 3 MONTHS
Get 50% off your first 3 months of email and SMS marketing with Omnisend using the code FOUNDR50. Start here → https://your.omnisend.com/foundr
SAVE 95% ON XERO FOR 6 MONTHS Simplify your business finances with 95% off Xero for your first 6 months. Start here → https://foundr.com/xero
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
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast
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