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726: Kristi, Eric & Alex Wrote Off $230K of Stock to Save Their Brand - It’s Now Done $4M in 5 Years
10/11/2026 | 40 mins.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/podcast725: (Solo) The 5 Traits of Leaders who are Worth 20 Average Employees
09/11/2026 | 11 mins.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 nathan@foundr.com — 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
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/nathanchan
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanhchan/
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
YouTube → https://bit.ly/2uyvzdt
Website → https://www.foundr.com
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/foundr/
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/foundr
Twitter → https://www.twitter.com/foundr
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/foundr/
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast724: I Started a $1B Company on My Dad’s Credit Card at 15 | GT Dave
05/11/2026 | 47 mins.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/podcast723: (Solo) Time or Money: The Framework That Changed How I Scale
02/11/2026 | 11 mins.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 nathan@foundr.com — 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
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/nathanchan
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanhchan/
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
YouTube → https://bit.ly/2uyvzdt
Website → https://www.foundr.com
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/foundr/
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/foundr
Twitter → https://www.twitter.com/foundr
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/foundr/
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast722: How a $700 Pair of Glasses Led to a $2.89B Company | Warby Parker
29/10/2026 | 38 mins.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
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About The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan
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.
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