The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan
Hear the stories, learn the proven methods, and accelerate your growth and future through entrepreneurship. Welcome to The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan.
About the show:
For over a decade, The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan has been a leading entrepreneurship podcast for open-book conversations with, by, and for founders. Whether you're starting, building, or dreaming about your business, The Foundr Podcast is where you can access experienced founders who've been in your shoes to learn their proven methods, lessons from failure, and inspirational stories.
Past guests include Emma Grede, Mark Cuban, Neil Patel, Kendra Scott, Alex Hormozi, Trinny Woodall, Tim Ferriss, Sophia Amoruso, Simon Sinek, Tony Robbins, Amy Porterfield, Ed Mylett, Michelle Zatlyn, Reid Hoffman, Scooter Braun, Dany Garcia, Marc Lore, Ariana Huffington, Pat Flynn, Lewis Howes, Jordan Harbinger, and many more.
About the host:
Nathan Chan is the CEO of Foundr and the creator of The Foundr Podcast. Chan literally started from knowing nothing. He was just an average guy working in a 9-5 job he utterly hated. He knew nothing about entrepreneurship, nothing about startups, nothing about marketing, and nothing about online or how to build a business. In the past decade, Chan's built Foundr into a global leader in entrepreneurial education, helping tens of thousands of aspiring entrepreneurs start and scale their businesses.
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1
699: A Pizza Oven Saved My Life - Then It Built...
He built a brick pizza oven in his garden to stay sober after rehab - it became a $100M brand that did $8.5M in the first four hours of a launch.
71 min
2
698: (Solo) She Worked 7 Hours a Day & Made Zer...
A founder in our community had the perfect product and zero sales. I told her the problem in one sentence, and it's the same thing holding back most brands.
10 min
3
697: I Sold My House to Fund My Idea - and Buil...
Two failed businesses, then she sold her house to fund a collagen brand nobody would manufacture - £1M in 13 weeks, now on track for £26M.
49 min
4
696: Jamie Left a Nike Exec Job to Bootstrap A ...
A Nike executive traded a 20-year corporate career for a bootstrapped, self-funded drinkware brand - this is the honest story of the slow build, the pivot from bags, and why he's chasing a sustainable family business over a unicorn.
58 min
5
695: (Solo) I Was Winning. So Why Was I Falling...
Nobody warned me that success could break me. I hit burnout at the best run of my career, and here's how I clawed my way back.
10 min
6
694: We Were Two Weeks From Shutting Down - The...
Two weeks from shutting down and millions in debt, they killed 700 products for one - now they're spending $600K a month on Meta.
48 min
7
693: (Solo) How I Built a Billion Dollar Networ...
I get this all the time. DMs, emails, some version of "hey Nathan, can I pick your brain?" And I get it, the intention is good. But here is what that message actually says to the person receiving it: I want your most valuable asset, your time, and I am going to give you nothing in return.
8 min
8
692: I Was Selling Muesli From My Car Boot - No...
47 min
9
691: Anastasia's $850K Brand Collapsed To $42K ...
A trademark fight forced Anastasia Chapman to rebrand overnight, and her ad-driven business crashed from an $850K year to a $42K month - this is how she took her ads in-house and rebuilt to $120K a month as a solo founder.
50 min
10
690: (Solo) The Truth About Selling Your Busine...
At some point, if you are building a DTC brand and getting traction, someone is going to reach out. An aggregator, a private equity firm, a bigger competitor. And most founders have no idea what to do when that happens because nobody ever walks you through it.
10 min
11
689: I Sold ONE Product in ONE Color - Then Exi...
He bootstrapped Quad Lock to a half-billion dollar exit with no investors, no playbook, and profit every single month from day one.
53 min
12
688: (Solo) I Lost Years Of My Life To This One...
I have never said this directly on the show before, but shiny object syndrome did not cost me months. It cost me years. Entire years where the Foundr team was spread across five or six initiatives instead of going deep on one or two. And the worst part is it never felt like a mistake. It felt like being smart because I kept seeing opportunities everywhere.
10 min
13
687: I Broke Every DTC Rule and Built a $1 Bill...
She left eBay, packed craft boxes in her garage, raised just $11M total, and shipped $1 billion - profitable since 2016 with a team of under 150.
51 min
14
686: Claire Built The World's #1 Dachshund Bran...
Claire Wolfson started Bean Goods in 2011 with a logo, some beanies, and no business education - this is the honest account of what 13 years of building a niche apparel brand from scratch actually looks like.
27 min
15
685: (Solo) The $500,000 Lesson I Had to Learn ...
A few years ago I lost half a million dollars in 30 days. Not in crypto, not in a speculative bet. In the business I built from my parents' basement and launched on $3,000 from a credit card. And the part that still gets me is that the loss itself was not the dangerous part. The dangerous part was everything that led up to it.
10 min
16
684: She Bet Her House Deposit on Hair Gel - an...
She bet her house deposit on a hair gel, sold out 20,000 units in 24 hours, and built an eight-figure brand in three years - here's exactly how she did it.
50 min
17
683: (Solo) The Expense Audit That Could Save Y...
This is not a growth hack. It is not going to go viral on a Twitter thread. But I genuinely believe it is one of the highest leverage things you can do for your brand right now, and most founders never do it properly because it is not exciting.
11 min
18
682: From $2M in Debt to a $250M Gum Company | ...
Jay Klein lost $2 million on a gum nobody wanted. He sold the remaining stock to a pig feed company for $13,000 - then used every cent of it to launch Pur. Sixteen years later, Pur is the fastest-growing gum in North America, the #1 selling gum on Amazon, sells in over 50 countries, and does over $250 million in retail sales annually.
57 min
19
681: Dr. Angela Spent $350K Building The Skinca...
A double board certified dermatologist with no business background invested $350,000 and three years building the teen skincare brand she couldn't find for her own daughters - and is now doing $40K a month across her website, Amazon, TikTok Shop, and major retailers.
32 min
20
680: (Solo) The Thing Nobody Tells You About Bu...
After interviewing over 700 founders, including more than 100 billionaires, I kept noticing something that never made it onto the podcast. When the recording stopped and I asked privately how they were really doing, so many described the same thing.
11 min
21
679: The $20 Jar of Salt Behind Her 9-Figure Je...
Jennifer Fisher started with $5,000 and a dog tag she sketched on a piece of paper for her son. Now Jennifer Fisher Jewelry is on track for nine figures, growing 50% year over year, and targeting 200-300% growth by 2028 - with a $20 jar of salt as her secret customer acquisition weapon.
46 min
22
678: (Solo) The First Hire Mistake That Trips U...
Most founders make their first hire reactively. They're overwhelmed, stretched across every function, and they just want someone to take the pressure off right now. So they bring in a generalist, hand them a list of everything they hate doing, and a few months later they're more frustrated than before.
8 min
23
677: We Built a $250M Cold Plunge Brand - From ...
Ryan Duey was living in an RV with his float spas closed and no backup plan when he and Michael Garrett built their first cold plunge from a retrofitted $100 bathtub in a garage. They turned their Shopify store on with zero marketing—and got a sale. What followed was one of the most unlikely scaling stories in DTC history.
59 min
24
676: Alisha Spent 16 Years In Salons - and Dist...
Alisha dropped out of year 10 to become a hairdresser, opened her own salon at 20, and ran it for nearly a decade - applying five different products to every client's hair, every single day. By the time she sold the salon, she already knew exactly what was wrong with the industry. What she didn't know was how to start an e-commerce brand. James Jade, her all-in-one leave-in conditioner that replaces up to five separate products, took two years and close to $21,000 to get off the ground. She doesn't regret a cent of it.
33 min
25
675: (Solo) The Money Mistake That's Quietly Ki...
I've wasted so much money over the years running Foundr that I don't even want to know the number. And if I'm honest, it came down to one thing: when it's the business's money, it doesn't always feel like yours. So you spend it like it isn't.
7 min