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.
Site
RSS
Apple
Données mises à jour le 01/10/2026
Classements récents
Dernières positions dans les classements Apple Podcasts et Spotify.
Liens partagés entre épisodes et podcasts
Liens présents dans les descriptions d'épisodes et autres podcasts les utilisant également.
Découvrez des podcasts liées à The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan. Explorez des podcasts avec des thèmes, sujets, et formats similaires. Ces similarités sont calculées grâce à des données tangibles, pas d'extrapolations !
711: Natasha Quit Her 9-To-5 In June - Her Drink Bottle Brand Now Does $15K/Month
Épisode 711
mercredi 30 septembre 2026 • Durée 41:35
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
Épisode 710
lundi 28 septembre 2026 • Durée 15:09
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 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
WANT TO GROW YOUR BRAND WITH META ADS?
Join the Foundr Operators Waitlist → https://foundr.com/operators
HOW WE CAN HELP YOU SCALE YOUR BUSINESS FASTER
Learn directly from 7, 8 & 9-figure founders inside Foundr+
Start your $1 trial → https://www.foundr.com/startdollartrial
PREFER A CUSTOM ROADMAP AND 1-ON-1 COACHING?
→ Starting from scratch? Apply here → https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-start-application
→ Already have a store? Apply here → https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-growth-application
CONNECT WITH NATHAN CHAN
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/nathanchan
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanhchan/
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
YouTube → https://bit.ly/2uyvzdt
Website → https://www.foundr.com
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/foundr/
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/foundr
Twitter → https://www.twitter.com/foundr
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/foundr/
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast
709: AI Agents: The Only Skill That Matters in 2026 (Masterclass)
Épisode 709
jeudi 24 septembre 2026 • Durée 53:50
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
Épisode 708
lundi 21 septembre 2026 • Durée 12:08
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 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
WANT TO GROW YOUR BRAND WITH META ADS?
Join the Foundr Operators Waitlist → https://foundr.com/operators
HOW WE CAN HELP YOU SCALE YOUR BUSINESS FASTER
Learn directly from 7, 8 & 9-figure founders inside Foundr+
Start your $1 trial → https://www.foundr.com/startdollartrial
PREFER A CUSTOM ROADMAP AND 1-ON-1 COACHING?
→ Starting from scratch? Apply here → https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-start-application
→ Already have a store? Apply here → https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-growth-application
CONNECT WITH NATHAN CHAN
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/nathanchan
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanhchan/
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
YouTube → https://bit.ly/2uyvzdt
Website → https://www.foundr.com
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/foundr/
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/foundr
Twitter → https://www.twitter.com/foundr
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/foundr/
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast
707: How Two Aussies Took On Samsonite & Rimowa - and Won ($100M+)
Épisode 707
jeudi 17 septembre 2026 • Durée 52:27
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
Épisode 706
mercredi 16 septembre 2026 • Durée 37:26
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
Épisode 705
lundi 14 septembre 2026 • Durée 11:54
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 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
WANT TO GROW YOUR BRAND WITH META ADS?
Join the Foundr Operators Waitlist → https://foundr.com/operators
HOW WE CAN HELP YOU SCALE YOUR BUSINESS FASTER
Learn directly from 7, 8 & 9-figure founders inside Foundr+
Start your $1 trial → https://www.foundr.com/startdollartrial
PREFER A CUSTOM ROADMAP AND 1-ON-1 COACHING?
→ Starting from scratch? Apply here → https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-start-application
→ Already have a store? Apply here → https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-growth-application
CONNECT WITH NATHAN CHAN
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/nathanchan
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanhchan/
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
YouTube → https://bit.ly/2uyvzdt
Website → https://www.foundr.com
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/foundr/
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/foundr
Twitter → https://www.twitter.com/foundr
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/foundr/
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast
704: How One Pivot Turned My FAILING Startup Into a $300M Brand
Épisode 704
jeudi 10 septembre 2026 • Durée 49:13
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 → 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 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
Épisode 703
lundi 7 septembre 2026 • Durée 10:44
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 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
WANT TO GROW YOUR BRAND WITH META ADS?
Join the Foundr Operators Waitlist → https://foundr.com/operators
HOW WE CAN HELP YOU SCALE YOUR BUSINESS FASTER
Learn directly from 7, 8 & 9-figure founders inside Foundr+
Start your $1 trial → https://www.foundr.com/startdollartrial
PREFER A CUSTOM ROADMAP AND 1-ON-1 COACHING?
→ Starting from scratch? Apply here → https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-start-application
→ Already have a store? Apply here → https://foundr.com/pages/coaching-growth-application
CONNECT WITH NATHAN CHAN
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/nathanchan
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanhchan/
FOLLOW FOUNDR FOR MORE BUSINESS GROWTH STRATEGIES
YouTube → https://bit.ly/2uyvzdt
Website → https://www.foundr.com
Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/foundr/
Facebook → https://www.facebook.com/foundr
Twitter → https://www.twitter.com/foundr
LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/company/foundr/
Podcast → https://www.foundr.com/podcast
702: Mark Cuban Calls Us His BEST Shark Tank Deal Ever ($200M+)
Épisode 702
jeudi 3 septembre 2026 • Durée 01:01:36
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
