- 40 minutes 20 secondsHow One Founder Took on the Gray Hair Industry and Won With Science, Not Hype
Arey founder Allison Conrad turned an overlooked beauty category into a science-backed business, with a clinical study to prove it. Hear how she built a defensible brand, from securing a patent to mapping a retail strategy designed around when customers are actually ready to buy.
For more on Arey and show notes click here
21 May 2026, 4:30 am - 27 minutes 50 secondsThe Sleep Brand Founders That Refused To Rest Until the Product Was Perfect
Kevin and Jin Chon cut open a pillow, found carpet padding inside, and spent 13 years fixing it. They built Coop Sleep Goods into a nearly nine-figure brand by spending more on materials, staying focused on one product, and trusting that a better pillow would market itself.
For more on Coop Sleep Goods and show notes click here
19 May 2026, 4:30 am - 36 minutes 51 secondsThe Scrappy Outreach Strategy Behind Candier's $14 Million Retail Empire
Krysten Kauder built Candier—a bold, irreverent candle brand with names like “Girl, You Need to Calm the F Down”—into a $14 million business stocked at Target, Whole Foods, and Ulta, and she did it without a PR firm, sales team, or single networking event.
For more on Candier and show notes click here
14 May 2026, 4:30 am - 50 minutes 15 secondsHow an AI Expert Built the Most Analog Product of 2026
Before the screen-time backlash hit the mainstream, Cat Goetze was already building an analog antidote. Her brand Physical Phones—Bluetooth landlines designed to replace smartphone habits—generated $800K in its first year and turned a personal frustration into a full-blown cultural movement.
For more on Physical Phones and show notes click here
12 May 2026, 4:30 am - 38 minutes 1 secondWhy This $5 Million Skin Care CEO Chooses Reddit Over Influencers
She built Virtue Labs into a $50M+ hair care brand. Now Melisse Shaban is CEO of Aramore — a biotech skincare company backed by peer-reviewed NAD+ research — and she's throwing out the beauty playbook.
No influencer deals. No aspirational campaigns. She's sending free product to Reddit strangers, asking for the honest truth, and betting that real science doesn't need hype to win.
In this episode:
- Why she left a board seat to run one more brand
- How a 28-day Reddit trial beat any influencer campaign
- The products she cut from her own line — and why
- What 30 years at Aveda, the Body Shop, and Fekkai taught her about what's broken in beauty
- Why she hates the word "aging" and refuses to sell fear
For more on Aramore https://www.shopify.com/blog/aramore-reddit-skincare-science?utm_campaign=shopifymasters&utm_medium=youtube&utm_source=podcast
7 May 2026, 4:30 am - 36 minutes 31 secondsThe Wellness Brand That Turned TikTok Flops Into an 8-Figure Business
The founders of Feel Goods built an eight-figure supplement brand with 100 million organic impressions and not a single product on a retail shelf. Their secret was radical transparency, founder-led content, and treating TikTok like a free testing lab before ever spending on paid ads.
For more on Feel Goods and show notes click here
5 May 2026, 4:30 am - 27 minutes 37 secondsHow 12 Founders Are Using AI To Get Ahead
Twelve founders building on Shopify reveal exactly how they’re using AI right now—the tools, the tactics, and where to draw the line. Here’s the playbook being written in real time by the founders of Figs, Therabody, The Black Tux, Loftie, and more.
For more details on this episode and show notes click here
30 April 2026, 4:30 am - 35 minutes 11 secondsHow Loftie Sold 200,000 Alarm Clocks Without VC Money
Matthew Hassett noticed that smartphones were ruining sleep, so he built Loftie, a screen-free alarm clock, to fix it. Without venture capital or paid press, he grew the brand to more than 200,000 units sold, and earned Wirecutter’s top alarm clock pick six years in a row.
For more on Loftie and show notes click here
28 April 2026, 4:30 am - 45 minutes 57 secondsShe Had 18 Million Followers. A Cause She Cared About Turned That Into a Business
She had 18 million followers, a product idea born from panic attacks, and zero paid ad spend on launch day. Within 24 hours, Hugz was sold out. Lexi Hensler built Give Hugz — a line of weighted stuffed animals designed to trigger deep pressure stimulation — by turning her own battle with anxiety into a brand now tripling sales year over year. But before Hugz existed, there was Lexi Llama: a merch line that launched a Christmas sweater one week before Christmas, promised worldwide delivery without knowing what international shipping cost, and ended with all four co-founders hand-signing apology cards at 2am. Every mistake became a blueprint.
In this episode, Lexi breaks down exactly how she built a brand that now stands on its own — where customers show up having never heard of Lexi Hensler:
- Why she capped the Hugz launch at 3 SKUs — and how starting with 8 nearly sank her first brand
- The Goldilocks weight (4 pounds) and why glass beads won over rice and flaxseed (hint: mold, maggots, and microwaving)
- How vulnerability in content converts better than follower count — and what she told other creators who couldn't figure out why their merch wasn't selling
- Why all four co-founders took zero salary for years, and what that looked like day to day
- How she navigates the line between sharing and oversharing — including the engagement decision she almost posted and didn't
- Why their scrappy two-person phone shoots often outperform the ones with a full professional crew
Hugz donates 10% of every purchase to mental health charities — and Lexi has personally visited every partner organization they've worked with. This is the story of getting it wrong first, and building something that outlasts you because of it.
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For more on Hugz: https://www.shopify.com/blog/hugz-creator-led-mental-health-brand?utm_campaign=shopifymasters&utm_medium=youtube&utm_source=podcast23 April 2026, 4:30 am - 45 minutes 45 secondsHow a DIY YouTube Channel Became a Multimillion-Dollar Home Goods Brand
Lone Fox’s Drew Scott on the vintage pivot that doubled revenue, building two million subscribers without ads, and why his business model can’t be copied.
For more on Lone Fox and show notes click here
21 April 2026, 4:30 am - 36 minutes 57 secondsHow Glamnetic Went From $1 Million to $100 Million—And Nearly Lost It All in Between
What happens when the product that made you famous starts holding you back?
Kevin Gould co-founded Glamnetic in 2019 with Ann McFerran, launching a magnetic eyelash brand that exploded from $1 million to $50 million in revenue in just one year — fueled by a great product, smart growth marketing, and the COVID-era boom in DIY beauty. But when the tailwinds reversed — iOS 14 updates sent acquisition costs soaring, the lash category contracted, and revenue dipped 25% — Kevin faced a make-or-break decision.
Rather than doubling down on what was declining, he pivoted the entire business into press-on nails, a category still in its infancy. Today, Glamnetic is one of the largest press-on nail brands in the world, doing over $100 million a year.
In this episode, Kevin gets real about the unglamorous side of hypergrowth: the cash flow crunches that come with scaling too fast, the inventory mistakes that haunt you, and the emotional toll of watching revenue fall when you expected it to double. He shares how he and his team navigated the pivot, why community and brand affinity will always outlast paid acquisition, and why the best advice he can give founders is: don't grow too fast.
You'll learn:
- Why going from $1M to $50M overnight nearly broke the business
- How to manage cash flow and inventory when you're self-funded
- The marketing mix that built a real brand — not just an ad machine
- Why TikTok Shop is the biggest arbitrage opportunity right now
- How a 40,000-member Facebook community doubles as a product development engine
- The one hire every founder should prioritize early on
- What it really takes — personally and professionally — to turn a pivot into a $100M business
16 April 2026, 4:30 am - More Episodes? Get the App