CEO of @foundr. On a mission to build the largest entrepreneurial ecosystem online that supports, educates & fuels founders
Melbourne, Australia
Joined February 2012
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I sat down with the college dropout behind two billion-dollar brands.
Her name is Emma Grede. She launched Good American with Khloé Kardashian, and she's a founding partner of Skims.
She shared 8 lessons for founders who want their customers to keep coming back:
TL;DR
1. Earn the second order - make a product better than anything else for your customer
2. Test before you launch - put a prototype in real customers' hands first
3. Find the underserved customer - build for the people few brands cater to
4. Build a listening system - hear from customers regularly through social, surveys and focus groups
5. Act on bad feedback - let what you don't like hearing change your decisions
6. Treat "it can't be done" as a problem - keep going round and round until you figure it out
7. Hire people who know more than you - pay them more than you pay yourself
8. Make a decision and move on - go with your gut, talk it out, and check with other CEOs
P.S. If you liked this:
Follow for more founder lessons like these, and watch the full conversation with Emma here: youtu.be/WL_WBaCWTj0
I’m Nathan Chan, the founder of Foundr.
I’ve interviewed hundreds of founders, including:
- Alex Hormozi
- Tony Robbins
- Gary Vaynerchuk
- Daymond John
- Tim Ferriss
- Richard Branson
- Arianna Huffington
- Emma Grede
- Sophia Amoruso
- Codie Sanchez
And so many more.
Here’s a little about me and what I've done so far:
> Grew up in the Melbourne suburbs. Mum was a nurse, Dad was a teacher, and we had no connections
> Worked an IT support job I hated, literally crawling under people's desks and changing their passwords
> Started a little digital magazine in 2013 as a side hustle... some nights I worked on it until 5am, then went straight to my day job
> Sued by one of the biggest business magazines in the states, which turned out to be a massive blessing in disguise
> Around the same time, I kept calling Richard Branson's head of PR until she picked up. He agreed to the cover, and I gave the Richard Branson edition away for free
> Went full time in 2014 and never raised money (I wanted to control my own destiny)
> Grew our Instagram from 0 to 10,000 followers in two weeks. I wrote a blog post on it that went semi-viral, people started asking for a course, and that course became our education business
> Built and exited Healthish, a DTC brand that was essentially a one-product company selling a time-marked water bottle
> Spent 10s of millions profitably on ads using my own money (but also lost millions too)
> Interviewed hundreds founders, including countless billionaires and some of the greatest entrepreneurs across multiple generations
> Have built one of the largest online education platforms in the ecom space and see everything that works and also everything that fails
> Been building Foundr for the past 13 years, and I'm still building it
And here’s what I'll be posting about:
> What these founder interviews taught me about scaling profitable businesses
> Why no agency is ever going to care about your brand as much as you do, and what that means for your ads
> Why one problem, one feature beats a full catalog (what Healthish taught me)
> Even more lessons from the founders on my podcast, including the stuff that never makes the highlight reel
My goal going into 2027 is to share all the lessons I've learned on my journey, in the hope of helping you guys on yours.
If that's the kind of thing you want to follow, stick around.
The Full Dude Wipes Playbook for growing to $40M with only 3 people
📁 Dude Wipes
┃
┣ 📁 Product
┃ ┣ 📁 One Category
┃ ┣ 📁 Body Wash + Deodorant Cut
┃ ┣ 📁 Multipacks + Scents
┃ ┗ 📁 Retailer-Led Launch
┃
┣ 📁 Team
┃ ┣ 📁 Mixed Skill Sets
┃ ┣ 📁 Founders Split Big Calls by Skill Set
┃ ┗ 📁 Scrappy Hires
┃
┣ 📁 Partners
┃ ┣ 📁 Day-One Manufacturer
┃ ┣ 📁 3PL
┃ ┣ 📁 Retail Brokers
┃ ┗ 📁 Agency for Brand Platform
┃
┣ 📁 Cash
┃ ┣ 📁 $30K First Run
┃ ┣ 📁 POs on Card
┃ ┣ 📁 Small Bridge Loans
┃ ┣ 📁 Credit Line Later
┃ ┗ 📁 Renegotiated Terms
┃
┣ 📁 Marketing
┃ ┣ 📁 Cultural Moments
┃ ┣ 📁 Separate Brand Budget
┃ ┗ 📁 Never Judge Brand by Sales
┃
┗ 📁 Your Audit
┣ 📁 New SKU Outside Core?
┣ 📁 Could a Partner Replace This Hire?
┣ 📁 Brand vs Performance Split?
┗ 📁 Can You Renegotiate Terms Before Borrowing?
The full playbook is in the YouTube video below 👇🏼
Things you should've done in 2020 in ecom:
- Build products with at least 80 to 90% gross margins
- Launch a subscription
- Send your ad traffic to landing pages
- Treat your creative as your targeting
Things you should be doing in 2027 in ecom:
- Build a creator army
- Run an affiliate program
- Launch fresh ad angles every month
- Raise your AOV to $70 to $150 or more
- Add a subscription upsell to your hero product
- Follow the playbook of an operator who has scaled
- Sell while your category is booming
In 2032, you will either say “I'm glad I started” or “I wish I had.” The choice is yours today.
Sat down with a dentist running a 7-figure loupe brand stuck at $100K/mo.
His ads work, he was just scared to spend more on them.
Here are 6 lessons from his journey:
6. Decide what success looks like.
Pick the monthly number and the life you want from it. When you hit that number, the target will move to the next one. A clear picture of success helps you appreciate what you've gained so far.