#352 - Building a Profitable Timeless Brand: 20 Years, 8 Figures, 100% Bootstrapped with Parker Thatch

Welcome to episode 200. In this episode Blaine and Ramon get together in the studio in Miami to share key learnings and tactics from guests, a breakdown of the current commerce, creator, and consumer landscape, and where the pod is headed next. Make sure to follow us on social where we share all the gems our guests drop and leave us a review if you like the content.

Mélanie Masarin is the co-founder & CEO of Ghia, the acclaimed non-alcoholic apértif beverage. Prior to starting Ghia, she served as Glossier’s Head of Retail & Offline Experiences, where she led experiential strategy and brought life to physical showrooms, permanent spaces, and pop-ups. Before Glossier, she served as Creative Director and Head of Brand & Marketing at Dig Inn.

Darrin Willingham is the creator & host of DNA SHOW, a YouTube channel with 215K subscribers where he talks about lifestyle around sneakers, finance, sports and travel.

Kevin Wong is the cofounder of Lunar, an award-winner hard seltzer brand inspired by Asian flavors. But Kevin’s path to becoming the founder of an alcohol brand wasn’t linear. Kevin studied computer science at University of Virginia

Terry Lee is the cofounder of Rosaluna, an all-natural mezcal thats made in Oaxaca, Mexico. It has quickly grown into the mezcal of choice for Soho House, Carbone, and several world famous restaurants.

Awful Cloth was founded by Chaz Zayed and Emmit Flynn while they were in college at Indiana University and Fordham. Awful Cloth blew up on TikTok after Charli D’Amelio was seen wearing it in several of her videos. Since then Awful Cloth has become an influencer and celebrity favorite and has been worn by Dave Portnoy (Barstool founder), DJ Dillon Francis, Avani Gregg, and Bryce Hall.

Tono Mandly is the co-founder of Riogrande, a Y-Combinator startup building local e-commerce brands, through acquisition and incubation, for the emerging middle class of Latin American consumers.

Zach Abbott is the CEO and cofounder of ZBiotics, the world’s first genetically engineered probiotic for consumer. ZBiotics first product is engineered to break down acid aldehyde, which is the toxic metabolic byproduct of drinking alcohol, that causes hangovers. Zach has a PhD in Microbiology & Immunology from the University of Michigan. Prior to founding ZBiotics in 2016, Zach worked at Biorasi ( a global clinical research organization) where he designed clinical trials for big pharmaceutical companies.

While Aspen is still in its early days, we’re excited to have Keta Burke-Williams on the pod to discuss the logistics of building a fragrance company. In this episode of DTC pod, you’ll hear Blaine&Ramon talk with Keta about creating a scent, finding a manufacturer, finding her voice when pitching to VCs, optimizing for online and offline sales, being smart with your resources, and tapping into your network.

We’re thrilled to have Kristin Toth join Blaine & Ramon on DTC Pod where she walks us through her career trajectory and how she narrowed in on supply chain & ops, being an advisor to multiple startups, why building a circular furniture company is challenging, how Fernish strategically launched in two cities to test product-market, and how Fernish has evolved over time.

Paul Voge speaks with Blaine & Ramon about how creating DIY flavors with his soda stream led to a full-fledge sparkling water business. Paul discusses the challenges of building a CPG brand, being on Sharktank during the height of COVID, Aura Bora’s path into retail stores, why he prefers retail over DTC orders, and more.

Stix makes women’s at-home health essentials like fertility, pregnancy, UTI, and yeast infection products. In today’s episode, Stix cofounder Cynthia Plotch chats with Ramon & Blaine about building Stix, finding investors, talking to customers about difficult subjects, and how her prior experience at Harmless Harvest gave her the confidence to create Stix.

Emily Elyse Miller talks to Blaine & Ramon about building OffLimits and how her creative background has informed the brand. OffLimits is also one of the early adopters of Web3, and Emily dives into how they’re currently using NFTs, what excites her about Web3, challenges with Web3, and what other brands need to consider before jumping into this.

Geoffrey Woo joins Blaine & Ramon on DTC POD to discuss why he started Anti Fund with Jake Paul, what they look for in founders when investing, and where he sees opportunity in Web 3. Geoff also dives into why Anti Fund is not your traditional VC, managing founders’ expectations when a celebrity investor is involved, and why they prefer investing in infrastructure over pure consumer startups.

On this episode of DTC Pod, Sam Madani chats with Ramon Berrios & Blaine Bolus to discuss how he built Bomani and the ups-and-downs of the entrepreneurial journey.

Tabs Chocolate is a sexually enhancing dark chocolate founded by two University of Michigan undergrads Jake and Oliver. Blaine and Ramon are excited to have Jake Lewin and Oliver Brocato on DTC Pod to discuss how they designed specifically for TikTok, negotiating and working with influencers, creating viral videos, and making 90K in revenue in just 3.5 weeks after launch.

In this episode, Jake dives into the strategy behind MDS’s content and discusses how celebrating the founding team is a competitive advantage, the importance of documenting the ups-and-down of being in a startup, and being unapologetically yourself.

Chris Bernard AKA “Bernie” joins Blaine and Ramon to discuss Mindright and working with Rob Dyrdek, learning from previous business mistakes of growing too fast, the importance of building your brand’s community before utilizing celebrity ambassadors, how TikTok is helping Mindright grow, and more.

Lindsay McCormick started Bite, a zero-waste toothpaste tablet, with $6,000 dollars in 2016. Six years later, Bite is a multi-product zero-waste company that’s redesigned moisturizer, deodorant, teeth whiteners, dental floss, and toothbrushes. Lindsay joins DTC Pod and discusses the early days of Bite and making the tablets in her living room, going to events to get product into the right people’s hands, overcoming nerves when you’re selling and conducting cold outreach, going on Sharktank and turning down an offer, building a bootstrapped business, and tips to improve your pitch.

Vlad Vukicevic is a seasoned entrepreneur who knows his way around the startup scene. He previously founded Meural (acq. by Netgear) and RocketHub (acq. by EFactor). His latest venture is Better & Better, a better-for-you vitamin infused toothpaste.

Endur, an athletic-wear brand that makes performance socks, was founded by Rob Fraser (former professional mountain biker) in 2016. Endur is a proud, boot-strapped brand that has grown into $10M brand.

David Gaylord has had a multifaceted career in ecommerce. He started at Shopify in 2015 as a customer success agent, became an Ops Lead in the Office of the COO in 2020, and a Permanent Merchant in Residence in 2021 where he uses his knowledge & experience founding Bushbalm - a natural skincare brand focused solely on the bikini line - to inspire and advise aspiring entrepreneurs. David joins Blaine Bolus and Ramon Berrios at the DTC Pod and tells us what it’s like navigating the world of ecommerce.

Shaun Brandt, co-founder of Oddit, is a designer and brand builder who is an expert at perfecting the customer journey and reducing friction points. His extensive agency experience (Shaun co-founded a product design agency that grew to 80 employees) helping brands grow enabled him to create Oddit. This first-of-its-kind CRO platform helps DTC brands boost conversion & strengthen loyalty.

Huron was co-founded by Matt Mullenax and Matt Terry. Both Matt’s have their own relationship with skincare. When Mullenax was growing up, he had bad skin and the only product that worked for him was extraordinarily overpriced. Matt Terry spent 25 years developing product for Estee Lauder leading corporate innovation & product development.

Kal Freese, co-founder of Taika chats with Blaine & Ramon about launching the functional coffee brand & how Taika leverages opportunities in Web3 to power brand, community, & product growth.