A law student launched painter’s tape on Amazon, built a mid-7-figure business, bought another brand, and found a surprise TikTok Shop shortcut he almost paid extra for.

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In this episode, Bradley Sutton sits down in Long Island City with Shaff Qureshi, a New York-born entrepreneur who built a mid-seven-figure Amazon business after launching with something as simple as painter’s tape. What started as a side hustle during law school quickly became a serious business, even though his immigrant parents initially hoped he would follow a more traditional career path. Shaff shares how he discovered Amazon through a friend connected to a retail business, saw the opportunity early, and jumped in while still in school.

The conversation follows his progression from that first painter’s tape launch in 2019 to building multiple brands, including his planner and journal brand, Insight. He explains why he stayed focused on growing in the U.S. instead of expanding internationally too soon, and how that discipline helped him keep scaling year after year. Shaff also talks about recently acquiring part of a larger educational poster brand, revealing that his long-term vision is not just to sell products, but to build a portfolio of household brands.

A major highlight of the episode is Shaff’s detailed breakdown of how he launches and grows products. He discusses using auto campaigns aggressively at launch, driving outside traffic from Google, Meta, and email, and relying on keyword rankings as the core success metric for his team. He also explains how Helium 10 tools like Search Query Analyzer, Keyword Tracker, and Helium 10 Ads help his business track market size, measure ranking retention, and identify which ad types are actually driving efficient results.

Shaff also shares lessons from both painful losses and unexpected wins. He talks about taking on a large loan for a product expansion that underperformed, and how that failure forced him to improve his systems and decision-making. On the other hand, one supplier mistake accidentally created a product variation customers loved, which became a breakout success. The episode also touches on his TikTok Shop expansion plans, including how Helium 10 Diamond saved him from adding more software subscriptions by already including influencer outreach tools he was about to pay extra for.

In episode 741 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley and Shaff discuss:

00:00 - Introduction
01:05 - Shaff’s New York And Pakistan Background
02:30 - Law School, Family Influence, And Starting A Business
04:05 - Why His Parents Doubted Amazon At First
05:17 - How He First Discovered The Amazon Opportunity
06:45 - Launching Painter’s Tape In 2019
08:28 - Building Insight And Growing Multiple Brands
10:06 - Revenue Breakdown, TikTok Shop, And U.S. Marketplace Focus
11:32 - Buying Another Brand And Building A Portfolio
12:28 - How He Uses Helium 10 For Growth And KPIs
15:19 - His Product Launch Strategy And Off-Amazon Traffic
24:18 - Biggest Losses, Surprise Wins, And TikTok Shop Software Savings

#741 - Building Amazon Brands And Buying More Of Them