← The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan
The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan
617: How A Failing Skincare Brand Became An 8-Figure Makeup Empire | Aliett Buttelman
00:52:49
Aliett Buttelman spent eight years grinding in the dark before a single viral moment with Taylor Swift turned Fazit into an overnight seven-figure brand. In this interview, Aliett breaks down the exact pivot that saved the company, how she identified product-market fit after years of plateauing at $20K per month, and the organic social strategy that now generates over half a million views every day.
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- [00:02]
A
Hey, founder fam. I want to talk to you about something super exciting. We're officially partnered with Omnisend, the email marketing and SMS platform built specifically for e commerce founders. We've been recommending Omnisend to founder students for a while now because it just works. Whether you're launching your first store or you're scaling to seven figures, it really helps you automate your marketing and get real results. Did you know on average, OMNISEND customers make $68 for every $1 they spend, which is an insane, insanely good return on investment. And because you're part of the founder community, you get 50% off your first three months with the code FOUNDER50. Just head to omnisend.com forward/founder without the e to get started. All right, now let's jump back into the show. Imagine if your brand had a single viral moment that changed the course of the entire business, turning years of grinding at $20,000 per month into seven figures in sales in just 48 hours. Well, today's guest, Elliot Buttelman is the co founder of Phaser Beauty, the makeup patch brand that broke every CPG rule in the book on its way to becoming an eight figure business. And after years of grinding on problem solving skincare patches that barely move the needle at 20,000 per month, Elliot and her co founder Nina made a bold pivot to aspirational glitter makeup patches. Then came October 7, 2024. Taylor Swift wore Fazeit's gold glitter freckles to a Chiefs game and in 48 hours, everything change. So in this conversation, you're going to learn why aspirational products can outperform problem solving products in saturated markets, the exact organic social strategy that generates over half a million views daily, and how bootstrapping give you the freedom to break every industry rule. Like going all in on Amazon when experts say it'll kill your brand. This is a masterclass in pivoting, in patience and being prepared. When your overnight success moment finally arrives after years of building in the dark, hear the stories, learn the proven methods and accelerate your growth and future through entrepreneurship. Welcome to the Founder Podcast with Nathan Chan. The first question that I wanted to ask you is it's the Kansas City Chiefs game in October 2024. I don't know the exact date it would be here in Australia, but what was going through your head when you turned on the TV? What happened?
- [02:38]
B
I had been an entrepreneur for eight years and I will never forget October 7, 2024. I. I don't even want to say. It was my lucky Break. But it was compounded. Years of the grind and the grit and everyone, everything came to fruition. I came home from a workout class, it was about 7pm and my husband had the Monday Night Football game on. I ignored it as usual. But this Monday was a little bit different because the Kansas City Chiefs were playing and I now started to tune in a little bit more because Taylor Swift would make an entrance and I was always interested to see what she was wearing. And I get a message from a content creator on our Fazit Beauty Instagram account saying, I think Taylor Swift is at the game right now wearing Fazette's glitter freckles. And I just blacked out. I was a little confused. Although I did plant the seed months in advance. And I look on my Instagram Explore page and the whole Explore page is a zoomed in photo of Taylor Swift wearing my brand phase of beauty's gold glitter freckles. And the Internet broke. I looked at the TV screen, I see her doing her stadium tunnel strut and I just bawled my eyes out. And somehow my husband captured this whole moment on video. And that was really the moment that my business phase of beauty changed.
- [04:11]
A
Yeah. So I want to unpack that because you know that video that your husband captured that got over 10 million views, not on purpose. But then what happened next is over a 48 hour period, Phaseit sales was, you know, over seven figures. But you guys were prepared, right? Like you, like you, you didn't run out of stock. So talk me through what led you to that moment. I want to go back because you guys have had pivots through the brand. It hasn't always been easy. Like you said, you've been doing this for eight years. Your co founder started another brand. Like Talk me through, like what led to this.
- [04:52]
B
It really is when I reflect back all timing and I think as an entrepreneur, especially in the early days, you really want to strike gold. You want that retailer investor to say yes to you. And if I look back, those are the times that we weren't ready. And I think the Taylor Swift moment happened to my co founder and I in our business when we were finally ready for, you know, that next phase of the business. But my co founder and I met when we were about like 21, 22. She had started her first skincare company. I was a consultant for her and we had years of experience working together and going through trials and errors of what it was like to build a business and took those learnings to create something together. 50 50, which was phaseit Beauty and the early days. We started as a skincare acne care brand. We were selling pimple patches, ingrown hair patches, silicone scar patches. And we were really learning the different lessons of building a brand. Everything from figuring out how to raise money for the first time, how to manufacture a new product that has never existed on the market. And we, we've failed over and over and over again. And we're trying to figure out how to make product market fit. And, you know, we're close to not having any more money left to run the business. And finally we found product market fit with the first ever makeup patches that we developed. But really, to have a Taylor Swift moment and to capitalize on such a viral moment, you have to lay the foundation for your company to be able to succeed in that moment. I actually just called another company who just had their own Taylor Swift moment, and they were like, well, we don't. It happened, but we don't know what to do. She wore the product. Pictures are all over the Internet, like, what next? So this moment can happen to anybody. But if you don't have the right people behind the brand and know how to capitalize on this moment, then the moment didn't matter to begin with.
- [07:04]
A
There's a lot to unpack here. So you met your co founder, Nina, as you were consulting for her. You started Fazeit together with just $13,000 of your own savings. For founders listening with limited capital, what were the absolute must dos to stretch that $13,000? Can you give us some detail and specificity? Because that's really helpful for people listening and watching.
- [07:33]
B
Yeah, I mean, I would have definitely spent my money much differently than we did. Again, you're going through a lot of that trial and error. I believe people should run their business at any phase with the mindset of I only have $13,000 in my bank account and really running a company lean and thinking through, do you need to, you know, take this marketing opportunity or spend that. That amount of money, will that actually move the needle for my business? But in those early days, it went to designing the product, the packaging, our first samples, having a little bit of inventory, hiring a graphic designer to do that. And that was really mostly where the money went. We couldn't afford, you know, some fancy website developer, you know, to come in and make a custom website. I remember looking at competitors like Hero Cosmetics and Starface, and they had these sick websites and mine looked like from the early 2000s, like dial up Internet, which was so embarrassing. I wouldn't show anybody in my community, what I was working on and what we realized is the only thing that was technically free, that we could control and that we were good at was social media. It wasn't designing graphics on Instagram. I remember being on Canva and trying to make something pretty and it looked like a disaster. And so we went on this new platform called TikTok and we were trying to figure out what was resonating with, you know, people on this new platform of, you know, how do we build a digital community there? And we leaned in and, you know, through trial and error and testing different content strategies, we found something that worked that we didn't have to pay for. And then I would say, you know, we. We've invested quite a bit in the early days of seeding to influencers, that that's where we really thought we would move the needle with the business. And all that costed was shipping and the cost of the product for us. And that's really all the money we had to work with. We didn't have someone for email marketing or SMS like all of the traditional levers that I would pull today. You know, we had no resources, capital or skill set to be doing any of that.
- [09:50]
A
Yeah. And how did you come up with the original idea? It's interesting to me what you mentioned before. You said two words, product market fit. Well, three words, product market. You said three words, product market fit. You didn't have that with the launch of this product. Tell me, tell me though, because it sounds like you thought you did. So tell me what, what research did you guys do? How did you come up with the original concept of your first line of products with the acne patches? But then you pivoted. What caused you to pivot? Because this is, this is really critical because a lot of founders, they would just see the end story of where you guys are at. I want to know how you came to the decision of pivoting. But before that, how do you come up with the first idea and what were the leading indicators that told you the first version of the product products was where to go? Yeah.
- [10:45]
B
So my co founder, Nina Labruna, her background is in product development and I was consulting for her on our first company, Labruna Skincare. She came to me during COVID and said, I have this idea for this dermal patch technology and it's with this ingredient or this ingredient that it's existed for a long time, but nobody's made it cool called Hydrocolloid. There is a few companies out in Korea, in South Korea working with this product. Only one company called Hero in the US who's making these tiny little pimple dots shout out to our friends at Hero. She's like, but I'm really noticing these Micro Trends on TikTok that the pimple dots people are using so many of them to put on their face. Maybe we should launch larger size of this product for people dealing with maybe more cystic acne or have larger scale breakouts. What do you think about this idea? And I'm certainly no product developer as I was like I don't know anything. I this sounds like another passion project on the side. I'm happy to help you work through this. And she ended up convincing me during that time to start a company with her 50 50. So we launched the first ever multi shape extra large acne patches. And this was for this acne community and we were really driving this messaging of acne positivity. And we beyond there we really wanted to push the boundaries of okay, like what else can we do with this patch technology? What else could this be used for? Can we infuse ingredients into it? So we launched the first ever ingrown hair patch for men's beard area and women's bikini line. We launched the first silicone acne scar patch for people who had cystic acne, maybe cleared it but now have these raised scars. So we were really, you know, figuring out what we can do with this new dermal patch space. We had seen patches being used with vitamins for a hangover or you know, melatonin for sleep. And then there was the pimple patch market and we were really doing something new in a space that hadn't existed before. We had traction on social media, we had interest from retailers, we had interest from investors. And I really think it was the matter of wasn't the right time for, for us there was traction, there was something there. We had innovated something that had never existed before. We had cracked the code on TikTok. But we still couldn't get industry people to give us like that stamp of credibility. And we, we were hitting goals but our lives weren't changing overnight. You know, nobody was really taking a chance on us other than us. And I think we knew something had to change or else we didn't know how much longer this business could last. And I remember my co founder coming to me saying, so I've printed these manufacturing samples of this. It's like it's a patch, but the patch has these like little glitter stars and it goes across the face. And I was like what, what does this have to do with our progress over perfection skin care blemish line? This, this. I don't know how, like, as a branding, marketing person, how do I weave the story to, you know, glitter makeup across the face? And I don't know if it was necessarily my aesthetic at the time. And she was like, you know what? I'm gonna send you some products. Let me know what you think. She calls me and says, I'm wearing these in Los Angeles. People are stopping me on the street saying, what in the world is across your face? And how long did it take you to make that design? And she said, no, no, it's. It's this patch. They're, you know, kind of these, like, glittery looking freckles. And she sent them to me. I try them on. I go out to a really nice restaurant with friends in New York City, and at the end of a dinner, the maitre d hostess comes up to me and says, ma', am, I just want to let you know I upgraded your table because we're so obsessed with your makeup. And immediately started seeing this community and connection over this maximalist makeup we were wearing. And I called Nina and said, okay, I'll figure out a way to weave this into our progress over perfection skincare patch line. Let's launch this product. And at that moment, we had raised a little bit under $200,000, really, to get to the next level, we had Urban Outfitters take a chance to on us. In the US They're a specialty boutique. If you're not familiar with them, usually typically at malls for Gen Z clientele, they put our ingrown hair patch in 10, 10 stores. So we had a little bit of money and traction. And I said, I hate our branding of Phaseit. Phase one. I, as a founder, can't get behind our original designs. It's overtly Gen Z. Everyone was trying to push this gender neutral, multicolored tie dye look. And I said, if we're going to continue to work on this brand, I need it to feel like an extension of me as a founder. So we took our money, we rebranded completely, and we were going to align this rebrand with the launch of the first ever makeup patches. And this was April of 2024. And at that moment, we launched. The launch story is actually quite interesting. We. It was Coachella Weekend 2 in Los Angeles. I said, this is the perfect moment to launch this product, except our manufacturer couldn't get the product to our warehouse in time. So my launch plan was ruined. And I remember crying on the phone to Nina, like, this was our chance. We've missed the moment. We sent a few manufacturing samples to friends going to the music festival. They made a video getting ready before the festival, wearing the product, just not even like the finalized product. They posted the video. The video goes viral. We sold out of a hundred thousand units of product before the product even hit our warehouse. And at that moment, we were like, okay. We found product market fit finally.
- [16:56]
A
Okay, this is good. All right, so a few things to unpack here. You said you were hitting goals with your original line of, you know, the, the. The acne. Acne patches and, you know, the ingrown hair removal. Like, like that excites me as a man. Like, ingrown hairs and you get a pimple and like that, that, that, like naturally I'm like, oh, okay. Like, my eye, my ears perked up. But what did hitting goals mean? And why was it like, it wasn't working still? Like, like, tell me what that looked like so a founder could potentially identify it. Because you, you know, at founder, you know, obviously we have a show, but we have a community of ecom founders in our founder plus membership. And, and this comes up a lot. It's like, how do you know whether to keep going with a product or not? How do you know if you've truly hit product market fit? It sounds like you guys hadn't, but you knew what that looked like or what it felt like. How did you define that?
- [17:56]
B
I think those early days, your goals are not necessarily tied to revenue. For us, I would say traction and goals were, are retailers interested? Okay, are retailers taking a chance on us? You know, are larger retailers, you know, bringing us into stores beyond, you know, mom and pop boutiques? Okay, what does that P.O. look like? How much is that? I would say traction on social media. What are our metrics looking like? Is our account growing? Do we see engagement in the account? Are investors interested in us? Are they reaching out? What are their fears with the brand? And then, okay, is revenue growing month over month? And when I mean revenue, I mean, I can pull up my P. L now. I was doing 500amonth, $2,000 a month, $8,000 a month. I was probably doing about $10,000 a month until we launched makeup patches or maybe a little bit more than that. 20,000 month was my Amazon account growing? So I think you look at that indicators. But I do remember we brought on a meta team for. For paid media, and they kind of said to us that there, the something's not resonating here, like Your ads are not performing. It's not converting. We tried so many different things. It was a little bit harder with, I think, the ingrown hair patch, which I thought was going to be our hero product, but not the easiest product to promote with, you know, meta policies of, you know, showing women's bikini line. That wasn't really going to work for us. So I, I think we kind of felt in our gut that something dramatic really has to change because at this rate, we have really not a lot of money to pour into this business. We're not sure how we're going to explode this on the other end. We were launching some very innovative products that had never existed before. And our competitors and, you know, beauty conglomerate started, you know, taking the idea and running with it and it doing really well for them because they had the money behind them and we just couldn't compete.
- [20:09]
A
But if big conglomerates are copying you guys or getting inspiration, there could have been an argument. If you guys kept putting, pursuing, you could carve out your own niche or market and you could keep growing. Like, if a business is doing, let's say, sub $20,000 a month, most would assume that you've hit product market fit. But you guys didn't feel that because, because this is really important because a lot of founders listening to this, if they're doing $20,000 a month with their product, they kind of, yeah, I'm onto something. But you didn't feel that.
- [20:43]
B
You know, we kept promoting the skincare patches when we launched our makeup patches, and then I think it was a really clear indicator from us if maybe the makeup patches didn't go viral upon launch and there it wasn't an instant success, I would have kept pushing the skincare patches a bit more. But I think since it was so clear that we just had like tapped this other untapped market, like, why, why keep, you know, burning money on something that wasn't doing super well? And let's just go all in on what's going well right now.
- [21:20]
A
Yeah. And look, that would make sense if you sold a hundred thousand units on launch versus these other products that you kind of feels like you're pushing uphill to get traction. It, it, it makes sense, right? Like you go with the wave.
- [21:33]
B
Yeah. And I think, to be transparent, you know, I've been asked in interviews and I probably have lied of, oh, well, did you see like a spike in your skincare patch sales when the makeup patches went viral or like when Taylor Swift wore your, your glitter freckles? Honestly, no. So right if we're not seeing a spike in like overall product selection from Fazeit, then I think it's time to abandon ship.
- [21:57]
A
Okay, that makes sense. So at what point, because you took over 100 VC calls from for Faze it, significant rejection. Talk us through. Like, at what point were you trying to raise money? Because you said you've raised a couple hundred grand. So you launched with 13. It's personal savings. Raised a bit from friends and family, I think 50k from an accelerator. At what point did you try and raise VC funding? Talk us through your experience, the lessons learned, even the emotional toll there. Because I think. And at what point was that? Was that during?
- [22:36]
B
Yeah, in the beginning. That. I mean, day one of starting PhaseIt, Nina said, I want to do this, but I want to be VC backed. We had run a bootstrapped company already. We realized as a beauty brand, you need a lot of money. I think the statistics, I mean, you would know. I think the statistic is like, you need a million dollars to launch a successful, you know, beauty CPG brand. So immediately, as soon as we launched our first prototype product of the extra large multi shaped acne patches, we put together a pitch deck and we went out there and for context at this time, I was seeing a lot of founders doing this of they hadn't officially launched or they didn't have revenue yet. Companies like Ceremonia and Crown Affair in the US And I looked up to those founders and said, okay, we can do that. I thought we had checked so many boxes for investors of, I've created a new category and I've innovated in this category. I've cracked a code on TikTok. I've created digital community. Isn't that what they all say on podcasts and interviews of what they're looking for from a new brand they're looking to invest into? So we went into these conversations and I think at that point these VCs had learned their lesson of, okay, maybe we need to see a little bit more, you know, revenue and traction before investing into a company. So, you know, we had our $13,000 of our personal savings, obviously, to create that first prototype and have inventory. And then we started, you know, talking to VC after vc and it was, you know, it was a blessing in disguise, honestly, that we didn't take money at that time because I think they would have forced us down a skincare patch road longer and maybe we would have never create, you know, had, you know, their faith in us to, you know, pivot and launch makeup patches and I think in the early days of starting a business, you don't know what direction necessarily you're always going into. And I think someone's saying that. I think someone's lying to you if there's always clarity and where they think the future is going for a business. And I think it is important to pivot and be adaptable as a founder. So a hundred no's. And I had one call that said, I know this guy who's working at an accelerator program. Let me connect you with them. This accelerator program only invested in tech companies. They were based in the Midwest. My co founder and I are in Coastal City. She's in Los Angeles, I'm in New York. And we started doing these pitch competitions with them, and they kept calling us back. And I was so confused because honestly, before starting Fazeit, I never considered myself a lucky person. And they kept saying, you're in the next round. You're in the next round. And never believed that we would be a finalist or we would, you know, enter into their accelerator program. But it was us and eight other companies every. They were all male companies. We were the only two women of this cohort. I think we were one of two CPG brands. Everyone else was in tech or fintech. And they gave us $50,000 on a convertible note. You know, it's technically $100,000 note because they considered another 50,000 to be the fee of the program. I would tell founders to be very weary of these accelerator programs and very gracious. They gave us money in a time that we were so desperate. But I think with that desperation, you say yes to things and, you know, you know, sign contracts that you know nothing about, and you can't afford lawyers and you can't really, you know, you have, you know, no leg to stand on in terms of negotiating at this stage of your business. So founders beware. But we entered this program and, you know, I don't think anyone in this program really helped us to get, you know, anywhere in the beauty world. But I think, you know, they gave us that first $50,000 to reach our next point of traction. And they really helped us, you know, create some structure between my co founder and I of, you know, some governance, putting together our first P and L, all these important things. As an early founder, you really neglect in the building stages. And that point probably gave us six to eight months of Runway. And then we decided to do. Once we hit another, you know, piece of traction, we had four more products out into the world. Urban Outfitter said yes to US videos with hundreds of millions of views. I felt comfortable to go to friends and family and say, we know what we're doing here. We're also launching these makeup patches. I need you guys to, you know, have faith in us. We know exactly where we're going. And I think we raised about $175 from friends and family at that point. And that was the last time I raised money.
- [27:20]
A
Yep. Awesome. And would you recommend to founders to raise money now? Being on both sides of the table, it's so different.
- [27:31]
B
I. I think CPG and like, tech are so different. And it depends how capital intensive your business is. I think for us, like, thank God we didn't raise money because it allowed us the freedom to figure out where we wanted to go with our business. And. And we have. I mean, I own 98% of my company. Right. That's priceless. You know, I think there was a sexiness years ago of raised so much, but you lose control. And a lot of my friends say, like, you know, my investors breathe down my neck and, you know, I. They fall into a rhythm of once you raise, you really, it's hard to not stop raising. You know, you've only. You've only run a company with money. And I tell founders, you need to learn how to raise the money with nothing. Sorry. You need to know. You need to learn how to build a company with nothing. And I think that has been our strength, is we have been so disruptive with marketing, with products, because we've had no other choice. And if I look at my marketing strategies versus these large conglomerates, it's funny, they're like all coming to me now because we have this skill set of how do we break through the noise where they're just paying, you know, the most expensive, hottest creator at that point and giving them a script and hoping something comes of it.
- [28:58]
A
Yeah, yeah, I. Look, I. I agree with you. 110 to build founder to the company Healthish DTC brand always like, I prefer to bootstrap. It's a. It's such a. Like the. The blood, sweat and tears you put into it is just unfathomable. But at the same time, you learn to actually build a business the right way. Yes. Once you have traction, then you want to put fuel on the fire. But at the same time, you can control your own destiny if you do stay bootstrapped. So talk me through, I guess organic social. You said you had hundreds of millions of views for the acne patches, Right. So you're generating, like you said, sub 20, maybe 30 like you're, you're a six figure multiple six figure year businesses. Your social strategy was still working, but nothing took off like the makeup patches. Talk me through. Like what can founders learn from you around having a solid organic social strategy? You mentioned that a big part of it was obviously product focused. Post not spending a lot. You said meta ads didn't work, nothing was landing. I always find that really interesting because a lot of founders, they are happy to just spend thousands or tens of thousands of dollars on ads where they could spend it in other areas. Like even on content creation. Like you see where I'm like it's oftentimes it's, it's, it's a unit economics thing with Facebook ads around your AOV a lot of the times. Like it's, it's just math. It's pure math. So, so what, what can founders learn? Like how do you create short form video content that gets views?
- [30:49]
B
There's so much psychology behind it. I think of one like stop looking around seeing what everyone else is doing. It's, it's, that's not standing out. I think even for us if you look specifically at TikTok, you know, people jumping on trends like that's not how you're like breaking through noise is if is with trends for us. We thought about it so methodically we with acne specifically one, there's already community there. It's a, you know, it's somewhat of, you know, not a tiny. But it's a, it's a small community of people who are talking about the same subject and had the same feelings and attachments. So you're really striking a chord with a certain community. The second thing is graphic content is disruptive. And three is there is a psychology around watching someone peel something off their face and something coming out of their skin. So we utilize that. We looked at, you know, Dr. Pimple Popper, you know, has a TV show in the United States. You know, people love watching this stuff. So we use that to our benefit. You know it was true twofold. One, it was this positivity community, right? People. Other brands were hiring, you know, professional models with perfect skin to talk about acne. We were gifting product to an acne community of people who really had these struggles and talked about it on the Internet and, and they were striking a chord with their community. And then our, our short form content of watching a patch peeled off someone's face and seeing, you know, not to be gross but like pus coming out. People watch that full video till the very end. And that's how something goes viral. We took that same approach to launching the makeup patches. Right. We noticed that people love, you know, waiting till the end to see this transformation of skin. Now we are going to take that same psychology and apply it to cosmetics. Right. My skin is bare right now, but in 30 seconds, watch as I pat my face with water on this paper backing patch, peel it off, and now I have this maximalist beauty moment in the matter of 30 to 60 seconds. That was our strategy. We had tested jumping on trends, talking to camera founder led content on the brand profile. None of that worked. I post 10 times a day on TikTok on the face of Beauty account. I probably have a video I know, with half a million views every single day with that same strategy that we've used from the acne patch content.
- [33:26]
A
Yeah. Wow. So you were getting views, but your conversion rate or click through to traffic was not that high. Right.
- [33:34]
B
I think our story is always about timing. And I think at that time TikTok was so new. When we had launched the acne patches, there was no TikTok shop. All I could do is put my website link in my bio. And I think most brands at that time had a really hard time converting views into sales. And that's something we struggled with a lot with until TikTok shop beta program launched in the U.S. yeah.
- [33:58]
A
Okay. All right. So with the whole Taylor Swift thing, October 7, 2024, you talked about, you know, you actually got off a call recently, just maybe today with a founder, that they had a viral moment where Taylor Swift was wearing their product or using their product, and they've got press, all sorts of things. But you guys were prepared and you were very strategic. Talk us through strategically, how, what were the things that you did before and what were the things that you did after?
- [34:34]
B
I mean, back to timing. Prior to Taylor wearing the product, we had several viral moments over that whole summer. So we had experienced, you know, we had these case studies of, okay, if, if sales surge one day from a video, what is our reaction to that? Is our warehouse ready? Do we have enough product? So we started projecting out more product to have in the warehouse. And luckily we had a massive shipment of product coming in two days before Taylor wore the product. You know, a little bit of timing, a little bit of luck, the day she wore the product. What people don't realize is nobody knew the brand she was wearing. So I spent probably the first five hours that evening contacting every journalist who was already writing about Taylor wearing this new makeup, glitter, freckle, across her face and saying, hi, we're, we're the brand, please credit us. And I had to do that for five, for five hours. And then the next morning I hired a publicist because there was so much inbound interest in us. So honestly, her on TV and then me looking at Shopify, I wasn't seeing the sales coming in immediately because consumers hadn't connected the dots yet. Once we had a control on press and we were getting on live TV segments and I honestly, I think every media outlet in the US and over the world, like across the world were writing about this moment. I think largely to the fact that we immediately got on social media and we were talking about it. We weren't going to let this moment pass. Assets. I was on my personal TikTok, so was my co founder. My video got 10 million views. My video is actually the video that ended up converting the most amount of sales in that first day. And then we naturally saw like D2C and Amazon take off. We had one retailer at the time and that was Urban Outfitters. So they were, you know, the only brick and mortar who was getting the surge of sales. And when you have a viral moment and I had, I had been on panels before the Taylor Swift moment talking about our brand and virality is you can't stop talking about it, right? It doesn't have to be Taylor Swift. Any type of viral moment that your brand faces like you can't shut up about it. Like you, like you're always hitting, I feel like email marketing always says this to me is, you know, you might be tired of it telling your own story, but you've only hit 1% of the world. So we were talking about it on Facebook beauty account, on our founder accounts, you know, across all marketing channels we were doing all different types of press. It was affiliate press, it was getting on tv, it was local news. And from that point, Taylor Swift was about to go on the ERAs tour. About two weeks later in North America, we went to every single, you know, city that she was performing in. We were doing pop ups, we were meeting our customers in real life. We were getting on those local news channels and we really had like a 360 flywheel strategy of how do we maximize this moment for as long as possible. The day after Taylor wore the product and you know, the Internet blew up with PhaseIt, I said to my co founder, what is it that we wanted before this moment? Because we need to go out and get it. And for us that was getting our first mass retail partner and I called Target the next day day, you know, who's a mass retailer in the US and they were had been on our vision board of our first partner. We wanted and we had been in conversations with them and they just wouldn't pull the trigger with us. And it, you know, it was that moment that they said, okay, we're going to roll you out into a thousand doors. We're going to do it as fast as possible. We can probably do it in three to four months which is unheard of in mass retail world. It usually takes anywhere from eight to 12 months to get into retail. They gave us a side cap, they gave us the deals that we, the deal that we wanted for, you know, they allowed us to negotiate on terms because we were a small business. So we really, you know, use this moment to get everything we wanted in the business.
- [38:38]
A
Yeah, I think it's interesting. My brand Healthish was stocked in Urban Outfitters and they came to us. I think when it comes to working with retailers, it's just classic deal making. The person that's prepared to walk away is the one that usually gets the best deal right. And you just have much like just, just so much more negotiation power. So why did you guys strategically use Amazon? I'm curious there like some brands shy away, some really lean in, you know, know like people. You, you have a whole like you, you allow all of your products, the whole shop front on Amazon. You could just really have your Shopify DTC played there and then just do in person retail like what, what is the strategic thinking there?
- [39:31]
B
Amazon's always been our biggest channel since day one. Even with skincare patches to makeup patches. Our products are an impulse buy and they were for different reasons. With the skincare patches is I'm having some type of skin emergency and I want to fix it as soon as possible. Well on my D2C I can get it to you in four to five days. And we didn't have retail presence at the time at Amazon. I may get same day or next day delivery. So that was important to us on, you know, from day one of the business. For the makeup patches we are occasion where you are bringing us to a concert, to a sporting event, as a fan, to your holiday party, you know, your bachelorette, a wedding, just a special occasion in your life. And you know, sometimes people, you know, forget to plan ahead or you know, it's impulse to buy tickets to a show and you need finishing touches on your look and we want to make sure that our customer can get our product as quickly as Possible makes sense.
- [40:28]
A
And from a brand perspective, what's your take there?
- [40:34]
B
We break all the rules of beauty and cpg. And I don't live by any single industry rule that an expert has ever told me to do this or not do that or go into this retailer first or if I go into Walmart, that I'm screwed for the rest of prestige brand history. And I was like, whatever. I was like, I'm the hottest beauty brand of the year and I've done everything backwards. Like, you know, we do as we do. I am a profitable beauty brand who's never raised money. Money like Amazon works. And I think, like, we knew this from day one and now every brand is like, oh, my God, I can't believe I've been so late to the Amazon game. Like, why did I listen to all of my advisors about, you know, protecting the boundaries of my business? And it's funny, I think that's a lesson I learned from my early days as, as being a model. I remember my agents wanted to protect my brand image with the, with the clients I was working for. And I couldn't take the super commercial client who ended up paying more so because it would ruin my brand image. At the end of the day, as a model and as a business owner, I am trying to make money and that is the only thing that matters. And like, I buy luxury goods, but I like to shop on Amazon. I'm not going to a random website and paying some type of shipping price to buy one thing. I'm going to do it all in one place. So I think it's silly to, you know, keep boundaries on what you're doing.
- [41:53]
A
Yeah. Thank you for sharing. I can see that's something you're passionate about.
- [41:56]
B
Yeah. You know, I just think there is these. I think it's important as founders, everyone in the early days are giving you advice. And I read this article recently about a brand who went into specialty mass retail in the US and they had a great community, but this retailer told them they needed to rebrand in order to survive at that retailer. The brand rebranded and they're now bankrupt. Their. Their loyal customers didn't like the rebrand or the reformulation. And you're making decisions based on someone else who has no skin in the game.
- [42:31]
A
Great story. And I think as a new founder, it's interesting. Like, I see these conversations in our community as well. It's like, oh, you know, I've got a really good opportunity with this massive retailer. I think it's going to be a good move for Me, but I'm only going to make 10% margins. They're giving me a terrible deal. Should I take it? What would you say?
- [42:54]
B
No, no, exactly, exactly.
- [42:57]
A
But, but as a new founder you kind of want to keep growing and it looks like it's a good opportunity and like it's like, you know, so it's like what I said like when it like from my personal experience building a common brand, not nowhere near the size of yours, it's. You want the retailers to come to you ideally, you want to have that negotiate and you want to always to work on your terms.
- [43:19]
B
Yeah, I mean I think I still do, you know, a bit of cold wholesale, you know, outreach, you know, not, you know, every buyer is in your world or I can't assume that everybody knows who phase it is and if I think someone's a good match, I'll go to them. But you're right. I wish in the early days I would have known that saying no is okay and it actually gives me more power and it's something I phase of our business and learning, you know, to also say no. I think in the last year we've had every opportunity under the sun. Doing a Super bowl ad and we want our brands on. What do you think about doing this? It was like a weird patch idea. Like that's, that is a horrible idea. Like I'm not sign our brand. Brand just makes no sense. I'm not trying my brand name to that and you know, I felt strongly about that example. But there's been collaborations that we've done that. If I think back, it's like I probably didn't need to do that makes sense.
- [44:18]
A
So we have to work towards wrapping up. This has been a fantastic conversation. You said something that I have to revisit that I found very, very interesting. And you said the difference between I guess the pimple patches and your products that you were selling at the time were solving a problem. They were like really problem based. But then the makeup patches were very aspirational. Genuine, Genuine generally or usually a founder is looking to solve a problem with the products and you guys did do that. But then aspirationally with the makeup patches, you said that that really moves the needle. Can you talk me through that?
- [45:03]
B
Why?
- [45:03]
A
Why? And the thinking there, that's so interesting.
- [45:06]
B
Yeah, I really thought in the early days with the skincare patches that a, you know, problem solution product, I mean that's a no brainer, right? Like these people have these issues and our, our patch is solving that issue. I think people always just Want, they want aspiration, they want to feel good, they want to look good, they want to be sold the stream of what something can feel like. And I think with the makeup patches, not that we're not solving a problem, I think, you know, we're taking, you know, you don't have to be a makeup artist to be self expressionate with the designs on your face. It's very speedy. It is a form of self expression as a music fan or a sports fan. And we're really, you know, bridging the gap of these underserved beauty demographics. But I think I realized talking to my customers, it is very emotional, our product and there is community that's being formed around the product. It's funny, one of Nina, my co founder's early meta ads that went viral, it was such cheap language, but she said, and it was authentic. This was a story from her. Every time I wear our glitter freckles, I get hit on or somebody compliments me. And she wasn't lying. Every time you wear these, it does become a conversation starter. It's a personal, you look approachable. You know, it gives someone a reason to connect with you over something. And I think that's just something we're all kind of missing in this digital age right now. So maybe the problem we're solving is not so literal. It's maybe a more emotional, psychological problem we're solving.
- [46:43]
A
Yeah, look, that from my perspective, I'm not in your space. But it, yeah, it's really interesting to me because, you know, for when I look at business and products, it's always start with the problem. So yeah, you would, you wouldn't have naturally came to that. But it's, it's really cool to see how you've guys evolved and built this brand over time. So I want to work towards wrapping up a couple last questions. You're a really strong advocate for manifestation, setting wild, ambitious goals. Goals. Can you share more about that? You know, you've publicly stated you had a $3 million annual revenue goal for 2024 when Fazer had only done $150,000 the previous year. And you surpassed that in 48 hours. What are your goals this year? Can you talk about how fast the brand has grown? You know, I assume over 8 figures. Multi could talk us through.
- [47:46]
B
Yeah, I, I think it's important to put things out into the world and say it out loud, you know, to make them a reality or at least set intention for a goal you want to reach. You know, 3 million. I think I overconfidently said in an article with a beauty industry expert. And I told my husband later that night, and he was like, why would you say that? It's just like, I don't know, like, I have six more months, like, maybe it could happen. And it ended up happening. But I think by saying that out loud, you put a bit of pressure on yourself, of, okay, well, how am I going to get to that goal? You know, you really force yourself to create a structure, you know, to meet those expectations on yourself. But every year I meditate for a little bit and, or just, you know, calm my mind. And instead of strategically making goals, I write down things that the first things that come to my head in terms of my business about what I want, what I envision for the next year. And I really just like, let my subconscious come alive and not overthink it and that all of those things that I have written down have come true. So I try and do that every single year. But I think it's important to do that short, medium and long term and hear also what you're doing. Team. Now that I have a team, you know, have my team do that exercise and see if there's patterns within the company for us to all work towards. I think for this next year, it's really, we're really focused on penetrating more deeply these underserved demographic, beauty demographics I was talking to you about, which is for us, the female sports fan, the female athlete, the music lover, holidays, occasion wear, and, you know, being a company that you are bringing my product to every core memory of your life. If it's, you know, celebrating Christmas or bringing it to a wedding after party or bring it to a sports game or a concert you've been saving up your money to attend and just brings, I don't know, something special and emotional to like. It's this core memory that, you know, you're creating with us. And I, you know, I think for us in this next year, it's, how do we scale those partnerships in the sports world, in the music world? We really envision ourselves as like the Red Bull of beauty. I want to meet my customers exactly where they're at. And yeah, those are our goals for, for 2026.
- [50:25]
A
And any final words of wisdom that you'd like to share with founders that are in the early stages or even, you know, mid to early stages that are watching, listening, reading this, that, yeah, trying to grow their brand.
- [50:42]
B
I think one what got me through every single day of building was listening to podcasts like yours. Like, seriously, like listening to other founders and, you know, taking away some tactical lesson, especially from a founder's early days and applying that to your own business, I think you start, you know, you know, having these building blocks and creating this foundation to get to where you need to go. I think creating a network in the early days is something I didn't do, but surround yourself around other founders at different stages and, you know, have advisors and mentors you can go to, you know, when you need to ask for help or just to gut check, I think. Enjoy the journey. This is like the most beautiful part of it all is, is the day to day and the grit and the grind and loving what you do. And then looking back of the last 12 months for us and seeing how much we've accomplished over this past year, yeah, I think that's my advice. And I think also just no one knows your company better than you, so I think like listening to your gut and, you know, taking everybody's advice with a grain of salt.
- [51:49]
A
Elliot, thank you so much for taking the time, giving back to our community. It's been an absolute pleasure. Congrats on all of your success thus far with Fazeit. I can't wait to see the next part of the journey.
- [51:59]
B
Thank you so much for having me. Appreciate it.
- [52:01]
A
Hey, founder fam. Thank you so much for tuning in today and if you enjoyed this episode, please take the time to leave us a review and let us know what you think. This podcast is 100% free. We work so hard to go out and find the most successful founders and entrepreneurs all around the globe. So your feedback helps us grow, improve, and even bring on more incredible, incredible guests and insights. So if you have a second, please take a moment and leave us a review. It really means a lot to me and the founder team. It makes so much of a difference. Thank you again for listening and I'll catch you on the next episode.