OPERATORS Podcast: How Matt Orlić Lost It All, Built a Skincare Empire & Found Meaning

Date: March 18, 2026
Guest: Matt Orlić (Founder, Kure Skincare)
Hosts: OPERATORS – Mike Beckham, Sean Frank, Phil

Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into the extraordinary entrepreneurial journey of Matt Orlić: from losing $5 million overnight as a young founder when a major Australian retailer collapsed, to bootstrapping his way to creating Kure Skincare—one of the world’s fastest-growing beauty brands approaching nine figures in revenue. The conversation is a lively, candid exploration of grit, reinvention, creative brand-building, and the pursuit of purpose beyond money.

Key Themes & Insights

1. The Rite of Passage: Losing It All

• Matt’s Early Ventures
  Matt shares how he started in business at 17 and built his first import/wholesale operation, eventually creating multiple hyper-niche consumer brands for Australian mass retail.

  "At 25, one of the retailers went bust. I lost about $5 million overnight. It forced me to pivot." (02:56, Matt)

• Coping with Catastrophe
  Matt’s mindset after losing nearly everything was transformative:

  "I convinced myself at the time because I lost this money, I’m going to be successful because all these other people lost heaps of money. So it’s like my rite of passage in order to be ultra-wealthy." (00:08, Matt)
  “You can’t control what you look at, but you can always control what you see. Life’s just a game of perspective.” (00:41; 64:32, Matt)

2. Reinvention: From Wholesale to DTC & Digital Playbooks

• Lessons from Wholesale
  After the loss, Matt swore off traditional mass retail:

  "I said, I’m not going direct to retailers anymore, I’m going to build direct-to-consumer." (12:31, Matt)

• DTC Success Story
  The first big digital hit was "Skywalkers" (hoverboards), which hit $2 million in four months (12:31, 23:51, Matt).
• Building Kure Skincare
  The real breakthrough came with Kure, co-founded with his sister:

  "Five years ago, I launched Kure Skincare with my sister. It was the first kind of global brand that we started. We might do close to nine figures this year." (02:56, Matt; 10:02)

3. Product & Brand Philosophy

• Innovation for Accessibility
  Kure’s mission is about making clinical treatments accessible at home, catalyzed by his sister’s personal skincare journey.

  “That was kind of the mission of the company, to make it more accessible to people like my sister.” (07:13, Matt)

• Distinct Product, Distinctive Brand
  Kure focuses on unique, patented products and designs, leveraging emotional and functional benefits to stand out.

  “We always try and change the design, the style, materials, the experience. Then we try and add some emotional benefit we call ‘the distinct pentagon.’” (10:25, Matt)
  “If you actually get a hand on our products, I think our products are literally world class. I think she spent a lot of time and done an amazing job on it.” (43:13, Matt)

Notable Discussion Segments (with Timestamps)

Matt’s Origin Story & Early Risks – [02:56–06:37]

• How he faked an office to secure distribution rights as a young entrepreneur.
• Rapid-fire brand launches in Australia, from headphones to Angry Birds drones.

The Collapse & Mindset Shift – [12:31–14:06]

• Detailing the fallout from Dick Smith’s bankruptcy and the emotional, legal, and business aftershocks.
• How he mentally reframed the loss as a badge of honor, a “rite of passage.”

Kure Skincare: The First Year & The Breakthrough – [09:13–11:26]

• Challenging first year selling high AOV ($350+) products, requiring significant investment in education and branding.
• The pivotal moment: launching a second acquisition product (micro-infusion) to broaden the customer funnel.

Creator-Led Growth & Influencer Strategy – [17:09–22:46]

• Matt’s influencer playbook:

  “When I was 21, I built my first brand of headphones... I did a deal with Sony Music: I gave them 10% of all my sales and every artist would promote my headphones.” (17:09, Matt)

• Continuous testing, scripts, and long-term partnerships to drive ROI.
• Practical advice for new brands:

  “You start at the bottom just by going after the smallest creators… You can go to creators with 10, 20,000 followers and still have similar results to what they’ll have if they have a big creator.” (21:56, Matt)

Entrepreneurial ADHD: Doing Too Much vs. Focus – [25:29–31:06]

• Sold or shut down businesses rapidly; tried everything from football supplements to tattoo removal clinics.
• Key Learning:

  “As soon as I focused on one thing [Kure], it kind of happened.” (27:15, Matt)

Burnout, Self-Discovery & Meaning – [33:00–34:06]

• Took three years off for travel and spiritual growth:

  “I put all the businesses under leadership and actually made more money without me, funny enough… I did spiritual stuff, psychedelics, tried to understand what do I actually want to do for the rest of my life.” (33:00, Matt)

• Reentered business only for “authentic money”—work he would do for free because it carried meaning.

Operational Mechanics & Global Growth – [43:13–55:26]

• Division of labor in the sibling-run company ("I’m offense/marketing, she’s defense/product").
• Technical scaling solutions (multiple warehouses, ERP, Fulfill for inventory and routing).
• Expansion to Amazon and international markets—complexity and learnings.

Memorable Quotes & Wisdom

• On Resilience & Perspective

  “You can’t connect the dots looking forward, only back. All that matters is what story you’re telling yourself at the time as to why that happened." (00:41, 64:32, Matt)

• On Focus

  “When I had 13 businesses at once, I was probably struggling to generate significant profit. But the moment I focused on one, we grew pretty quickly to $80 million in four years.” (63:53, Matt)

• On Authentic Entrepreneurship

  “The difference between authentic money and inauthentic money is that [authentic] has some kind of inherent meaning—you do the act without needing any money or gratification in the process.” (00:08, 33:00, Matt)

• On Building for Impact

  “At this stage of my life, any extra million that I make won’t actually impact my life at all. My basic needs are met, my lifestyle is met… I almost build at the moment so I can coach. That’s how much I enjoy it.” (56:15, Matt)

Tactical Breakdown

Product Development

• Use independent design agencies for aesthetics, then take to factories for engineering – avoids costly over-design, ensures manufacturability. (47:15–48:48)
• Invest in making the product “distinct” but let the factory handle the functional engineering.

Team & Structure

• Family co-founded: Matt drives marketing, operations, and strategy; his sister steers product development and brand.
• Operations—Matt: "She’s everything product, I’m everything marketing, and I still run supply chain, finance, etc." (43:13, 50:45)

Channel & Market Expansion

• DTC first, then grew into Amazon, TikTok Shop, and global shipping (Warehouses in US, UK, China).
• Creative influencer and offer testing machine: "We have a spherical scaling system—angle architecture, awareness levels, scaling with formats." (39:13, Matt)

Use of AI & Technology

• Heavy emphasis on upskilling the team to use AI for efficiency in all departments.

  "We want to empower everyone to find solutions on their own... You can use AI as a use case in so many different ways." (61:51, Matt)

Final Reflections & Lessons for Operators

• Surviving a Catastrophe Can Be a Competitive Advantage:
  Use failure as a motivator and a credential for resilience.
• Focus Drives Scale:
  Narrowing to a single brand unlocked 10x the results of scattered energy.
• Creativity & Angles Win:
  Success comes from constantly testing new creative approaches, not simply making a good product.
• Build for Meaning, Not Only Money:
  Long-term fulfillment comes from authentic, impact-driven work.
• Practical Brand-Building Advice:
  Start with small creators, invest in product design, and ruthlessly systematize operations as complexity grows.

Resources & Links

• Matt’s Coaching Platform: ecomarktx.com
  • Operators’ listeners receive a discount: mention the podcast.
• Kure Skincare: kure.com
• Find Matt on LinkedIn for further questions or coaching.

Key Moments at a Glance

• [02:56] Matt’s early hustles and wild brand creation stories
• [12:31] The $5M loss and reevaluating his life strategy
• [17:09] Deep dive into influencer marketing systems
• [25:29] Why he quit the multi-business “rat race”
• [33:00] Going on a spiritual journey and redefining success
• [43:13] How he and his sister split brand responsibilities
• [51:56] Operationalizing global DTC growth
• [56:15] Why Matt now coaches founders
• [61:51] How his company uses AI in real, practical ways
• [63:53] Why focus is foundational in entrepreneurship

This episode is a must-listen (or must-read!) for any entrepreneur seeking real talk about failure, reinvention, and building brands with meaning beyond the numbers.