Some know Spencer Matthews as a Reality TV Star. Others know him as a World-Record Holder. But beyond the public eye, Spencer's journey over the last few years from overcoming addiction through to founding 'clean alcohol' brand CleanCo is one fit for a movie.

Spencer is the latest guest into the pub, and this one is (quite literally at times) barking mad. Sharing stories from his early struggles with alcohol and the inception of CleanCo, through to his extreme physical challenges and family life, this is definitely our most inspiring episode yet.

Some of the world's best ecom brands were founded by a bullish founder from the comfort of their bedroom. But, Connor Martin must be the first to manufacture and sell fragrances from his!

Connor founded The Essence Vault in 2019, with humble beginnings at local street markets in Belfast. He's since grown the brand to be the UK's largest online fragrance business, turning over more than £50 million per year.

From becoming the first UK brand on TikTok Shop, to building out a 300 person team, Connor is one of Europe's sharpest brand operators. He joined us to chat through his journey, playbook, and to share some hilarious stories along the way.

Yanni Hufnagel isn’t your typical founder. He’s a former basketball coach that brings energy and motivation to the business world in a way we haven’t seen before.

Yanni found his niche with the refreshing lemon water drink, Lemon Perfect, now the fastest growing enhanced water brand in the US. From seeing his product stocked in major chains like Whole Foods and CVS, to bringing Beyonce on board as an investor, Lemon Perfect has taken the beverage market by storm.

Having crossed more than $100mn in revenue, Yanni is now pushing towards a billion dollar valuation. He sat down to chat with us about his early journey, the importance of relationships in building a retail brand, and the impact of bringing major celebrities like Beyonce on board when scaling.

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Timestamps:

00:00 Trailer

01:35 The Initial Idea for Lemon Perfect

05:34 Fractional Resources: Running a Brand as a Solo Founder

08:47 Why Athletes Make Great Entrepreneurs

12:00 Wins & Losses in Year 1: The Pivot Away from Refrigerated

15:50 Tips for Getting Into Retail

21:27 The Impact of Celebrity Endorsements

24:34 Why Building a Beverage Company is a Streetfight

26:22 How Beyonce Became an Investor

29:06 The Next 24 Months

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Follow us across our socials:

- Twitter: https://x.com/happystackhq

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/happystackhq/

- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/happystackhq

___

Check out the HappyStack website:

https://www.happystack.com/

We connect the world's best DTC brands with the software they need to scale efficiently.

___

Check out Yanni & Lemon Perfect:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/yhufnagel/

https://www.instagram.com/yanni/

https://x.com/yhufnagel

___

#ecommerce #podcast #founder #business #makemoneyonline #lemonperfect

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In a world where new fashion brands are started every day, authenticity is rare. But Luke Murphy and his brand Almost Home, have it in droves.

He’s prioritised creativity above all else, designing pitch-perfect products for his community, and prioritising the long term game, over short term monetary gains.

From collaborating with industry giants like Cole Buxton and UVU, to seeing Rio Ferdinand repping his gear at the Champions League Final, Luke joins us for a few Guinness to give his unique take on building a fashion brand in 2025.

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Timestamps:

00:00 Trailer

01:25 Origins of Almost Home

06:10 Taking the leap as a founder

08:30 Building a brand first, ecom store second

09:46 The importance of finding the right co-founder

14:38 The story behind Almost Home's logo

17:24 Daily ups and downs of running a business

21:34 Balancing product quality with a sustainable business

24:32 Working alongside Cole Buxton & UVU

26:37 Why UVU have blown up as a brand

30:23 Nail your product before attempting to scale

33:03 Rio wearing Almost Home at the UCL final

37:11 Getting the basics right as a new founder

42:54 How ALD redefined the retail experience

45:16 Staying true to your brand amidst ever-changing trends

48:49 What Luke knows now, he wish he knew at the start

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60% of marketers say influencer marketing delivers a higher ROI than traditional channels.

Not only does creator marketing work - it’s essential for building a profitable, sustainable brand. The challenge? It’s overwhelming for marketers without experience, and the landscape is always changing. That’s where today’s episode comes in.

Andy Cloyd and Anders Bill, the brains behind Superfiliate, help the world’s top DTC brands craft influencer campaigns that actually win. From Chamberlain Coffee and Dr. Squatch to MUD\WTR and Graza, they’ve seen firsthand how hundreds of 7 and 8-figure brands run influencer, affiliate, and referral campaigns.

In this episode, they break down their playbook for success in word-of-mouth marketing—from sourcing the right influencers to measuring campaign impact. Whether you’re an influencer pro or launching your first campaign, this one’s for you!

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Timestamps:

00:00 Trailer

01:00 Intro

02:48 Should every brand be working with influencers?

05:50 Product Creator Fit: Working with creators pre-launch

10:29 Micro-Mentions: Design your product to be shareable

12:11 How to approach your first creator campaign

15:03 Sourcing the right influencers for your brand

17:43 Affiliate, Up-Front or Equity: Structuring influencer deals

22:07 Nailing Discovery: Get to know your creators

27:25 How involved should brands be with content creation?

28:46 Is pay-per-post a risky approach?

30:50 Negotiating paid media deals

37:01 Measuring success with influencer campaigns

44:03 Future of the Creator Economy: What 2025 has in store

48:43 What role will AI play in the creator space?

52:31 Are social platforms facilitating creator/brand relationships?

___

Check out the HappyStack website: https://www.happystack.com/

We connect the world's best DTC brands with the software they need to scale efficiently.

___

Follow us across our socials:

- Twitter: https://x.com/happystackhq

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/happystackhq/

- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/happystackhq

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Owning a business is no easy task. But imagine running four successful businesses before the age of 30. 

Grace Beverley is the 28-year old entrepreneur, podcaster and social media star behind a multi-million pound empire. 

Since building fitness app Shreddy as a student at Oxford, Grace has gone on to launch and scale activewear brand TALA - raising more than £5mn in funding in the process. 

Basically, she knows what it takes to build brands that actually matter! 

Now she’s shaking up the creator economy with Retrograde, an AI-powered talent agent that’s revolutionising brand deals.

Join us for an intimate dinner with Grace in Lisbon as we dive into:

✅  Balancing career ambition with a busy personal life

✅  The fight to close the gender funding gap, and why it matters

✅  Why she’s pulled back from being an influencer despite her huge reach

✅  And her social content strategy for upcoming creators

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Timestamps:

00:00 Trailer

01:15 Intro

04:55 Building Retrograde: The AI Talent Agent

11:56 Balancing Life With Four Businesses

16:05 VC Funding: The Motherhood Penalty

18:24 Gender Funding Gap: How Do We Fix It

22:47 VC Blind Spot: Female Entrepreneurs Outperform Men

31:35 The Media Gap: Female Entrepreneurs Are Overlooked

34:54 Why Grace Pulled Back From Being An Influencer

41:23 Social Following Doesn't Equal More Revenue

___

Check out the HappyStack website: https://www.happystack.com/

We connect the world's best DTC brands with the software they need to scale efficiently.

___

Follow us across our socials:

- Twitter: https://x.com/happystackhq

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/happystackhq/

- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/happystackhq

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dan Nugent is no stranger to the world of building brands. Back in 2017, fresh off the birth of their first child, he founded Ambr Eyewear alongside his wife Sacha. The couple built the blue light eyewear brand to 7 figures from their kitchen, winning a host of awards and sealing some lucrative retail partnerships along the way. 

The Post-Covid ecom collapse left Ambr Eyewear in turmoil, like so many others in the DTC space. After pausing to reassess the business and mistakes made along the way, Dan relaunched the brand as Everambr, a performance-focused eyewear brand in 2024. 

In our chat, Dan dives into some hilarious stories from his time building Ambr, from ‘almost’ getting sued by Specsavers, through to his son Theo’s birth on Black Friday as they experienced their biggest ever 24 hours. 

The learnings he’s taking into his new journey with Everambr are immensely valuable to anybody building a DTC business in 2025.

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

01:00 When Customer Support Goes Wrong

03:55 Lightbulb Moment: Starting Ambr From The Couch

07:18 Retail Brings Credibility: How Ambr Got Into Brown Thomas

10:00 How Jack Met Dan

12:39 Approach Pricing With Retail In Mind From Day One

15:05 'Almost' Sued By Specsavers

18:11 Lessons From Failure: Importance Of Product Diversification

24:10 Everambr: Moving From Eyewear Towards Performance

28:40 Know Your Financials!!

32:41 Growth Tactics: Gifting Works

36:00 UGC Is Essential In 2025

37:48 Marketing Failures: Avoid TV Ads

40:25 How AI Is Changing The Content Game

45:36 Authenticity Is Key When Building A Brand

47:50 The Appetite To Go Again

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Ryan Babenzien doesn't just follow e-commerce trends - he invents them!

A veteran of the footwear and streetwear industry, Ryan has a long-history with brand building and e-commerce. In 2014 he founded the first digitally-native sneaker brand, Greats - a brand which he exited to fashion giant Steve Madden in 2019. Not one to chill on the beach and bask in his own success, Ryan immediately started Jolie - now one of the fastest brands in the DTC space!

Ryan's journey with Jolie has seen him scale the brand to $50mn in revenue in a three year period, all while maintaining a lean team of just four full-time staff. In our chat he dives into his framework to build a successful DTC business, his not-so-subtle dislike of Meta, his experience exiting an eight-figure brand and how he's using AI to scale his business as leanly as possible.

Timestamps

00:00 Intro

02:00 Success With Greats - The First Digitally Native Sneaker Brand

04:01 If Meta Is So Great, Why Are Brands Losing Money?

06:59 Has It Gotten Easier Or Harder To Start A DTC Brand?

10:12 Think About Your Exit Before Starting A Business

14:47 Ryan's Framework For Starting A Successful Brand

17:17 The Importance Of Smart Product Positioning

19:34 Staying Focused To Build A $50m Brand

23:31 Growth Hack: The Water Report

26:12 How To Test Your Market Before Building Your Product

29:44 The Data Problem: We've Prioritized Measurement Over Performance

33:38 How Jolie Scaled To $50m With Three Employees

37:09 Is Software Replacing People in E-Commerce?

40:41 How To Price Your Product

48:41 What's Next For Jolie?

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Here we go, Episode One of Lock-In - and it's a cracker! Our guest this week is Matt Kelly, the founder of Spacegoods - Europe's fastest growing all-in-one Mushroom Coffee blend. His journey through e-commerce has been an absolute rollercoaster, from dropshipping ripped jeans, to building two 8-figure brands before both ultimately entered administration in 2021. It's the learnings he took from these that have helped him build Spacegoods into one of the UK's fastest growing food brands.

Our conversation with Matt is raw and honest. You'll hear everything from his thoughts on VC funding vs bootstrapping, through to his ongoing struggles with hiring. Matt's a marketing genius, and today he dives into his playbook for success, sharing real insight into what's working and what isn't for Spacegoods.

Timestamps:

00:00: Intro

00:45: How Matt Stumbled Into Entrepreneurship

06:30: From Bedroom Brand to $50m - Simple Shit Scales

15:25: Moving Into Retail - Does It Move The Dial For Brands?

17:35: Building A Team - You Should Be Able To Do £20M Per Year With 20 People

21:28: Should DTC Brands Raise VC Money?

25:57: Building A Process When Raising Money

29:45: Good Angels Add More Value Than VC's

31:55: What Are The Biggest Challenges Spacegood's Faces?

35:55: Starting A Business With An Influencer - The Key To Fast Growth

40:12: When Influencer Marketing Goes Wrong

42:27: Learning From Failure - What Went Wrong With Neon Beach

50:53: What Do The Next 12 Months Look Like For Spacegoods?

54:24: What's The Biggest Opportunity In E-Commerce Right Now?

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TikTok isn’t just for lip-syncing teens anymore. In the last three years, a host of social-first brands have broken-through to become multi-million pound businesses. Their secret? Content. And nobody in the beauty space does it better than Daisy Kelly and Glow For It. In just four short years, Daisy has taken Glow For It from a small side-hustle in her mum's kitchen, into a brand doing six figures a day on TikTok Shop.Daisy is the latest guest in the pub to chat about the brand's origin story, her playbook for success using TikTok Shop, the importance of authenticity when building a community, and how Glow For It recently sold a product every 19 seconds.. across a 12 hour TikTok Live! If you’re looking to crack TikTok in 2025, this isn’t one to be missed.

Meet Michael Corcoran and Dave Morrissey. Mates, drinking buddies, and two of the UK's leading social marketers. Michael is the marketing genius who turned Ryanair into the world's leading airline on social, clocking up more than 1 billion organic impressions in 12 months. Now he's building Slice, a consultancy agency where he's helping some of the UK's top brands cut through the noise and grow on social. Dave has spent the last three years leading out e-commerce at TikTok where he has helped the UK's top DTC brands scale their revenues through TikTok Shop. In this unfiltered chat, we deep dive on the strategy that built Ryanair into a global leader on social, how brands can level-up on TikTok, and some hot takes on the future of social. Not one to be missed!

Bio.

George Kruis and Dom Day aren’t your average founders, they’re former international rugby stars who went from scrums and stadiums to supplements and Sainsbury’s. As ex-Saracens teammates, their journey from elite athletes to co-founders of wellness brand ‘FourFive’ is full of unexpected pivots, hard-won lessons, and big wins in both the worlds of e-commerce and retail.

In this episode, George and Dom get real about the moment they knew they had something special with FourFive, how they tackled the transition from rugby to retail, and the mindset shift that came with life after sport. From leveraging their athlete networks to landing shelf space in major retailers, they unpack how they found their “unfair advantage” and built a trusted name in the crowded wellness space. Including the challenges of scaling and building a brand around a highly regulated product, CBD.

They talk Shopify, subscriptions, investor relationships, and even the science (or lack of) behind whether FourFive can really cure a hangover. We say it can.

If you're a founder, athlete, or someone in between, this one’s packed with energy, insight, and inspiration. And a good load of laughs too.

Timestamps

0:00 Trailer

01:30 The Back Heel Conversion

02:56 The Aha Moment for FourFive/ The Idea for FourFive

05:10 Transitioning from Rugby to Entrepreneurship

07:55 Finding the Right People and Support

09:15 Lessons in Communication

09:52 Preparing for Life After Rugby/ Tapping into your Network

14:18 Lean into your Skillset/ Finding your Unfair Advantage

17:17 Getting into retail/ Sainsbury's

20:43 The Ecom Pivot

22.06 The Parallels between Sports Teams and Businesses

29:35 Goal Setting

31:49 Is FourFive a Hangover Remedy?

36:53 Challenges of being in the CBD Space

40:17 Shopify + Subscriptions

43:38 Influencers and Investors

46:15 Jack's POV

Meet Grace Andrews, the 28-year-old Marketing Director behind the world's biggest podcast - Diary of a CEO. Grace joined Steven Bartlett as DOAC's third employee in 2020 when the podcast had just 8,000 subscribers.

Through trial, error, and in Grace's own words 'lots of naivety' she built the marketing playbook that scaled the brand to more than 1 Billion listens in just four years.

In our chat with Grace, we deep dive her playbook for building the world's biggest podcast while also diving into the top social media tips and trends for 2025. Not one to be missed!

Meet Olivia Jenkins - the founder behind the fastest-growing jewellery brand in e-commerce.In 2020, she was burnt out, broke, and dealing with the recent loss of her mum. Alongside her partner Jack, she channelled this grief to start D. Louise — a multi-million pound jewellery brand now loved by thousands of women across the UK from Molly-Mae to Maya Jama.In this unfiltered episode, Olivia shares how she turned a side hustle into an eight-figure business.Chapters00:00 - Trailer01:10 - Introductions02:10 - Launching a brand with zero experience 08:30 - The importance of customer-centricity 10:24 - Sourcing and selling her first products13:20 - Bootstrapping the first drops 18:55 - Taking the leap full-time, & working with your partner24:50 - Black Friday: The day everything changed25:50 - Bringing Gymsharks ex-CEO on board29:50 - Importance of authenticity in collaborations33:40 - Handling negative reviews and customer experience35:10 - What made D.Louise stand out in a saturated market44:30 - Future categories and avoiding distraction47:00 - Why big brands can't copy D.Louise52:40 - Shifting Behaviours: Women buying themselves jewellery54:00 - The big vision for D.Louise56:30 - Rebranding: Telling her mother's story through design

Season 3 kicks off with a heavyweight episode.
This week, we’re joined by three operators who’ve collectively spent more than £100 million on Meta in the last 18 months - and who sit behind some of the UK’s fastest-growing consumer brands.

Jack Rubin, founder of Purdy & Figg, the DTC cleaning brand now generating £50M+ in annual revenue.

Olly Hudson, a co-founder of Soar With Us, the UK’s largest DTC growth agency.

And returning fan-favourite Matt Kelly, founder of Spacegoods, back after one of our most memorable episodes.

This conversation is exactly what brand owners talk about over a pint (or three). We go deep on:

• The real state of Meta ads right now

• How AI is reshaping acquisition

• Why doubling down on your influencer strategy is no longer optional

• What it actually takes to scale a modern DTC brand in 2025

  
  

If you’re looking to sharpen your customer acquisition strategy over the next 12 months, this is the episode you’ll want to binge.

This week, we sit down with Lucie MacLeod, the founder behind HairSyrup the Sunday Times Founder of the Year who built a built a million pound empire after being rejected by all 6 dragons on Dragons Den.

Lucie's story is chaos turned into strategy. She started mixing hair oils in mustard bottles in her student kitchen, gave away her formula on TikTok, then deleted her viral account. When thousands of people begged to buy her products, she ignored them. Her parents said absolutely not. She did it anyway.

From a £3.99/month website to the Dragon's Den experience that everyone saw on TV to turning rejection by all six Dragons into 22 million profile views and a 66% revenue jump. Why she refuses to chase viral tactics, deliberately runs an 8-10% affiliate model in an industry that does 80-90%, and told her TikTok account manager she'll never make £2m on a live - and doesn't want to.

Raw, funny, and packed with lessons you won't find in any startup playbook.

This week, we sit down with the founders of Spot & Tango, one of the few DTC brands that scaled to nine figures without chasing growth at all costs.

Russel and Dylan break down how they went from cooking dog food in their kitchen to building a $100M/ year pet food company, why they chose to own manufacturing instead of outsourcing, and how they perceive profitability as a responsibility and not a bonus.

From being prudent operators to dog lovers we talk about the moments where things nearly broke, the risks most founders avoid, and why they believe discipline beats speed when building something that lasts.

Honest, opinionated, and packed with real lessons, this episode is about building a durable consumer brand, making hard decisions early, and staying focused when the pressure to move faster is everywhere.

This week, we sit down with Lukas Pakter, the 24-year-old founder behind Haus, Trybe, and Outliers. Lukas has built a personal brand generating millions in revenue, and in this conversation he walks through his actual playbook—why audience quality matters more than size, and how the right mentor helped him scale from £100K a month to £100K a day.

We cover his approach to content, the systems he's built to scale beyond himself, and the realities of growing modern ecom businesses. He also gets honest about nearly going bankrupt, taking a deal everyone advised against, and the lessons that shaped how he operates today.

Practical, direct, and full of specific insights you can actually use.

This week, we sit down with Aimee Smale, the inspiring founder behind Odd Muse. In four years she's taken the cult British womenswear brand from a bedroom startup to a £30m business. Aimee opens up about spotting the gap in the market for accessible luxury, quitting ASOS without a plan, and quite literally dismantling her bed to make room for a desk. From making £10 logos and packing orders herself, to designing the blazer that changed everything, this is a masterclass in betting on yourself.Aimee speaks candidly about online pile-ons, media attacks, and why the last year has been her hardest yet. She also breaks down the decisions that shaped Odd Muse’s growth, and why she believes Odd Muse can be a £100m brand, even if she doesn’t want to take it there alone.Honest, high-stakes, and full of lessons you won’t hear in a pitch deck.

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro & Early Years of Odd Muse

12:00 Taking Impulsive Risks

14:55 Importance of Building a Rounded Skillset

19:30 How One Hero Product Can Change Your Life

22:20 Importance of Being Your Own Customer

28:00 The Influencer Moment That Changed Odd Muse

33:30 Founder-Led Marketing

37:00 Dealing With Online Trolls Over The Last 12 Months

46:08 Why She's Now Stepping Back & Hiring a CEO

53:25 How Moving to New York Changed Her Mindset

55:30 The Strategy Behind Odd Muse's Retail Stores

01:01:30 Growing the Wholesale Business