Krysten Kauder built Candier—a bold, irreverent candle brand with names like “Girl, You Need to Calm the F Down”—into a $14 million business stocked at Target, Whole Foods, and Ulta, and she did it without a PR firm, sales team, or single networking event.

For more on Candier and show notes click here

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Before the screen-time backlash hit the mainstream, Cat Goetze was already building an analog antidote. Her brand Physical Phones—Bluetooth landlines designed to replace smartphone habits—generated $800K in its first year and turned a personal frustration into a full-blown cultural movement.

For more on Physical Phones and show notes click here

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She built Virtue Labs into a $50M+ hair care brand. Now Melisse Shaban is CEO of Aramore — a biotech skincare company backed by peer-reviewed NAD+ research — and she's throwing out the beauty playbook.

No influencer deals. No aspirational campaigns. She's sending free product to Reddit strangers, asking for the honest truth, and betting that real science doesn't need hype to win.

In this episode:

• Why she left a board seat to run one more brand
• How a 28-day Reddit trial beat any influencer campaign
• The products she cut from her own line — and why
• What 30 years at Aveda, the Body Shop, and Fekkai taught her about what's broken in beauty
• Why she hates the word "aging" and refuses to sell fear

For more on Aramore https://www.shopify.com/blog/aramore-reddit-skincare-science?utm_campaign=shopifymasters&utm_medium=youtube&utm_source=podcast

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The founders of Feel Goods built an eight-figure supplement brand with 100 million organic impressions and not a single product on a retail shelf. Their secret was radical transparency, founder-led content, and treating TikTok like a free testing lab before ever spending on paid ads.

For more on Feel Goods and show notes click here

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Twelve founders building on Shopify reveal exactly how they’re using AI right now—the tools, the tactics, and where to draw the line. Here’s the playbook being written in real time by the founders of Figs, Therabody, The Black Tux, Loftie, and more.

For more details on this episode and show notes click here

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Matthew Hassett noticed that smartphones were ruining sleep, so he built Loftie, a screen-free alarm clock, to fix it. Without venture capital or paid press, he grew the brand to more than 200,000 units sold, and earned Wirecutter’s top alarm clock pick six years in a row.

For more on Loftie and show notes click here

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She had 18 million followers, a product idea born from panic attacks, and zero paid ad spend on launch day. Within 24 hours, Hugz was sold out. Lexi Hensler built Give Hugz — a line of weighted stuffed animals designed to trigger deep pressure stimulation — by turning her own battle with anxiety into a brand now tripling sales year over year. But before Hugz existed, there was Lexi Llama: a merch line that launched a Christmas sweater one week before Christmas, promised worldwide delivery without knowing what international shipping cost, and ended with all four co-founders hand-signing apology cards at 2am. Every mistake became a blueprint.

In this episode, Lexi breaks down exactly how she built a brand that now stands on its own — where customers show up having never heard of Lexi Hensler:

• Why she capped the Hugz launch at 3 SKUs — and how starting with 8 nearly sank her first brand
• The Goldilocks weight (4 pounds) and why glass beads won over rice and flaxseed (hint: mold, maggots, and microwaving)
• How vulnerability in content converts better than follower count — and what she told other creators who couldn't figure out why their merch wasn't selling
• Why all four co-founders took zero salary for years, and what that looked like day to day
• How she navigates the line between sharing and oversharing — including the engagement decision she almost posted and didn't
• Why their scrappy two-person phone shoots often outperform the ones with a full professional crew

Hugz donates 10% of every purchase to mental health charities — and Lexi has personally visited every partner organization they've worked with. This is the story of getting it wrong first, and building something that outlasts you because of it.

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For more on Hugz: https://www.shopify.com/blog/hugz-creator-led-mental-health-brand?utm_campaign=shopifymasters&utm_medium=youtube&utm_source=podcast

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Lone Fox’s Drew Scott on the vintage pivot that doubled revenue, building two million subscribers without ads, and why his business model can’t be copied.

For more on Lone Fox and show notes click here

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