Kate Assaraf is the CEO and founder of dip sustainable, a plastic-free haircare brand she launched in 2021 that hit seven figures within 18 months without running a single paid ad. Before starting dip, she spent 20 years inside the beauty industry, long enough to see the deceptive marketing practices that eventually pushed her to build something completely different.

Most DTC beauty brands launch with paid social, influencer seeding, and a race to acquire customers fast. Kate did the opposite. She cold-called refill stores, traveled across the country to meet sustainable retailers face to face, and built distribution through brick-and-mortar before she ever thought about digital advertising. Today, dip is carried in all 50 states and has sold over 300,000 bars by word of mouth alone.

The conversation covers why Kate chose physical retail over digital-first, how she thinks about authentic customer marketing in a category overrun by sponsored content and AI-generated testimonials, and why she built her own factory after her contract manufacturer went bankrupt. That last decision, vertically integrating manufacturing and fulfillment under one roof, turned out to be the most consequential call she made as a founder.

Kate also takes on the sustainability conversation directly, pushing back on the moralizing that she believes drives people away from the movement rather than toward it. Her version of sustainability is inclusive, economics-driven, and grounded in saving customers money, not lecturing them. She explains why the dip conditioner bar, at $32 and lasting close to a year, is a stronger pitch than the environmental argument alone.

Founders in CPG, beauty, and retail will come away with a rare perspective: what it actually looks like to build a consumer brand slowly, deliberately, and without the typical playbook.

Website: https://www.vimmi.net

Email us: info@vimmi.net

Podcast website: https://vimmi.net/commerce-untold/

Eitan Koter's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eitankoter/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VimmiVideoCommerce/featured

Guest: Kate Assaraf, CEO & Founder, dip sustainable

Kate Assaraf's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-assaraf-b25a741a7

dip sustainable: https://dipalready.com

Watch the full Youtube video here:

https://youtu.be/c9hCsejvcX8

Key Takeaways:

• Seven figures in 18 months, zero paid ads. If the product solves a real problem and you understand the customer from the inside, distribution follows

• Real paying customers outperform influencers in haircare and skincare because results are too easy to fake

• Moralizing drives people away from sustainability. Framing it as inclusive and economically smart converts more people than shame ever will

• The $32 conditioner bar saves customers up to $500 a year. The environmental pitch is secondary to the financial one

• Gifting product builds a hollow first wave. Real retention only comes from people who spent their own money

• When her contract manufacturer went bankrupt, Kate built her own factory. It removed 3PL costs, protected the formula, and became the best decision she ever made

• Returns largely end up in landfills. Local retail reduces return rates and creates accountability that e-commerce cannot replicate

Chapters:

00:00 Seven figures, zero ads

00:16 Introducing Kate Assaraf

00:54 Values beyond work

03:09 Why Kate left the beauty industry

04:22 Dip's marketing: real customers only

07:59 Fast beauty, sustainability, and unlearning consumerism

14:24 Seven figures without a single ad

15:36 How Dip launched: refill stores and road trips

21:51 Giving back and reinvesting profits

25:41 When the contract manufacturer went bankrupt

27:51 Advice for founders

29:54 Where to find Dip