From Bedroom Startup to Global Brand: How I Built Foundr & Sold an Ecomm Business with Nathan Chan

0:02John Lee Dumas:Who's ready to rock today, Fire Nation? JLD here, and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, brought to you by High Level, the all-in-one sales and marketing platform. Today, we'll be breaking down from bedroom startup to global brands. To drop these value bombs, I brought Nathan Chan into EO Fire Studios. Nathan is the founder of Founder, an entrepreneurial education platform that sells 4 million plus entrepreneurs globally. He's interviewed over 100 business icons like Richard Branson, and he's built and sold an e-commerce brand from scratch. And today we'll talk about how he pulled that off, how he landed Richard Branson as his first interview, how to scale and exit a business and the biggest mistakes that e-commerce founders make and oh so much more.

0:41John Lee Dumas:And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Nathan and our sponsors. Stop duct taping your business together. High Level runs your website, your funnels, email, automation, scheduling, payments, and memberships all in one place. And when you sign up at highlevelfire.com. You get a 30-day free trial plus my exclusive bonus stack that includes weekly office hours with me and much more. Visit highlevelfire.com. Highlevelfire.com. Fire Nation, are you ready to build something special in the next 50 days? Check out my free YouTube series, 50 Days to Something. Short and strategic step-by-step videos by me, JLD.

1:20John Lee Dumas:On day 50, you'll have a valuable asset. And the best part is it's completely free. Visit eofire.com slash YouTube and start day one today. Nathan, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Thanks so much for having me, man. So look, I think most people think when they have to start a business and be successful, you need to be the best, but you actually don't. You just need to be relentless. Like you don't have to be the smartest. You don't have to be the most connected. You don't have to have some secret edge. When I started founder, I had none of that, no audience, no money, no experience, no connection.

2:07But the one thing that I had was obsession, follow up, a relentless work ethic. And it's just all about grit and resourcefulness. It's crazy where it can take you.

2:18John Lee Dumas:Yeah. And I love the fact that, you know, we connected over 10 years ago now, and we've both, you know, stayed connected on some levels as we've been growing our businesses, you know, on other opposite ends of the earth, so to speak. And today we're talking about going from bedroom startup to global brands. And as you kind of alluded to, I mean, you launched Founder from your bedroom with$2 ,000 with no connections. You worked your butt off. You were relentless. Tell us more though. How did you actually pull it off? First of all, it started with one interview, right? And you know, the power started with one interview.

2:53Look, I was working in a job that didn't fulfill me. And I had this opportunity to, I saw this opportunity to start this magazine. So I purchased the software that allowed me to create a digital magazine on the App Store and Google Play Store. And I always had this curiosity around entrepreneurship. You know, you and I spoke 10 years ago. I started Founder 12 years ago. And believe it or not, when we started our podcast, you started before me, interviewing I thought was a hot thing back then and I started interviewing people because I was just curious like how the hell they were building online businesses you know friends of friends or hearing stories of people building online businesses from their bedroom from you know with no skills or experience whatsoever and what happened was these stories were so amazing I wanted to share them with the world but I started with one magazine edition man and just started to interview people.

3:56And then eventually, after four months, I got an interview with Richard Branson and the journey just kind of continued.

4:03John Lee Dumas:Yeah, you and I have pretty similar beginnings because I, like you, had no experience whatsoever. I had no connections, but I knew, like you knew, I knew that there were people out there that were interested in hearing the stories of founders, of entrepreneurs, of small business owners, of their successes, of their failures. And I'll never forget, there was a website called help a reporter out H A R O. And I was talking to a mentor, Jamie Masters. And I said, I have this idea for a daily podcast. And she said, we will never find enough people to interview for a daily podcast. So I went on that website and I just posted, Hey, I'm starting a podcast to interview entrepreneurs, business owners, and founders.

4:47John Lee Dumas:It's going to be about 20 minutes long. Is anybody interested? And you know, this company was all this hero, the website was all full of like PR people, you know, people in charge of public relations and other individuals looking for press, et cetera. And I got over 400 emails in just a couple hours. And I was like, this is a year's worth of content that I just got in a couple hours from one single post. Like that proof of concept was all I needed. But then, you know, to your point, Nathan, it was a lot of hard work. That was just the proof of concept. Now, is about putting in the work. And now here I am 13 years later, 4 ,787 episodes later, you're still going strong.

5:31John Lee Dumas:You've helped over 4 million entrepreneurs globally. And you landed Richard Branson as your first big interview. How the heck did you pull that off? A couple of things, just like, you know, when it comes to getting great guests, first of all, you need to have a platform. And then secondly, you need to ask the right people, right so uh i found i found his gatekeeper and from there i was able to pitch um now if you have a podcast it's not as easy but if you have a magazine right this is what i quickly discovered is if you can offer somebody a front cover and a front cover story it's really really powerful no matter how big your magazine or publication is and so um i found the right person and i I never forget, I was renting and I was telling my housemates to be quiet late into the night because I was pitching Richard Branson's head of PR and it was first thing in the morning in the UK for them.

6:38And yeah, I was stumbling, I was all over the place, but I said, you know, like my pitch And I played on the fact that his first business magazine, his first business was a business magazine. And from there, they said yes. And I took that and ran with it. But yeah, the way I was able to do it was having a platform and then really finding the gatekeeper. And I think that's really, really key.

7:08John Lee Dumas:Yes. And I can say that I've definitely had similar experience. I mean, number one, it's better to have a podcast than nothing. like just reaching out and saying, hey, can I pick your brain for like 15 minutes? You're going to get no across the board. So having a podcast at least is like, hey, you want to come on my show and there's an audience and there's this and that. But to say like, you're going to be on the cover of my magazine, like that's a huge appeal. I can definitely see why that happens. So you've got to find the niche. How do you open that door? And then once you've had Richard Branson, like who's going to say no?

7:39John Lee Dumas:And on that note, you've now interviewed well over a hundred of the world's top entrepreneurs. What are the top lessons, Nathan, that you can share from that? So there's a ton. One of them is what I said, like, you know, the thing that most people disagree with or that I believe that, you know, is required is that you have, like all of these people have an obsession, right? They have an insane work ethic. They have an obsession. they're really good at getting the right people around them you know I think when it comes to building a successful business you have to have and you don't have to have it straight away but and you'll certainly learn the hard way and it's a rite of passage but you have to work out how to identify really great people because to build super successful businesses it's it's you know know it's all about leadership man it's all about building a team and then also of course they've worked out products they've got a product or a service that is truly game-changing and it's not just all marketing right a great product is something that people often discount when they're early in their business journey and they just want to create something and then they think it's amazing, but you have to go well above and beyond to make sure your product is exceptional, whether it's your content, whether you're a content creator, it has to be different.

9:10It has to cut through, but it has to really go well beyond anything else that's out there to get the, to build anything of true worth and significance. It takes time and it takes a lot of relentless focus, but you have to have the right people around you as well.

9:24John Lee Dumas:and fire nation that's why i say you have to create the number one solution to a real problem in a growing industry if you can do those things you're going to win on some level and we have a lot more to talk about around this topic when we get back from thanking our sponsors there are two things i know about you for sure you're an action taker and you love to learn otherwise you wouldn't be listening to this podcast so i'm excited to share another source of inspiration i know you're going to love Blinkist. Blinkist is an app that takes the world's best nonfiction books and breaks them down into 15 minute reads or listens.

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10:35John Lee Dumas:Go to blinkist.com slash fire to start your free trial and lock in an extra 30 % off today. That's blinkist.com slash fire. Fire Nation, ideas are exciting, but systems will allow you to create freedom. That is where High Level comes in. High Level allows you to build and run your entire business from one platform. Website builder and hosting, funnel and landing pages, email marketing, automation and workflows, calendar booking, payments and subscriptions, even course and membership hosting. Everything works together seamlessly. Plus, award-winning 24-7 support so you are never stuck. And when you go through my link at highlevelfire.com, you unlock my full bonus stack.

11:15John Lee Dumas:a 30-day free trial of High Level with full access, a private 50-minute coaching call with me, weekly live office hours with me, a digital copy of my book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, my 50-days to something execution roadmap, and more. Stop piecing tools together. Start building momentum. Visit highlevelfire.com and start building your something today. Nathan, we're back, and you started an e-commerce brand from absolute scratch. What did you learn from scaling that brand all the way through exit? I started this e-commerce brand called Healthish. It was a time-marked water bottle, really popularized the concept.

11:57It was copied everywhere that eventually exited that business.

12:01John Lee Dumas:You mean actually it has like time on the bottle, like drink this by like 10 p.m., 8 a.m. or whatever? Yeah, yeah, exactly that. That's so weird because I'm literally drinking out of one right now. And I'm not joking. Like it says, 8 a.m. get started, 9 a.m. remember your goal, 10 a.m. keep going, 11 a.m. don't give up. Like I'm holding it in my hands. Yeah, there you go. There you go. So there's been so many variations of that copy, but I really popularized the concept through my Instagram skills and my marketing skills. So pretty much as, you know, we and I spoke 10 years ago, we caught up in person at an event in the Philippines.

12:40I think that's the last time I saw you. And pretty much, you know, as founder progressed, we really carved out a niche helping people start and grow e-commerce businesses. And we go out there and we find incredible people to teach courses on our course platform, founder plus. And pretty much we were helping people. And I was like, I've got to do this too. And my girlfriend, she really wanted to live a life of freedom. and so I launched this e-commerce brand with her because I had a bit of a chip on my shoulder, John. I was like, you know what? I, you know, want to prove myself founder isn't, you know, just a fluke.

13:25Yeah, not just a one-trick pony.

13:26John Lee Dumas:Come on. Yeah, I didn't want to be a guy that just, you know, talks about building an e-commerce brand. I've actually done it. Talks about building other businesses. I've actually done it. So what I learned from that experience, launching Healthish to a seven-figure brand was that if you get the product right, it just flies off the shelf, right? Like people talk about this thing called product market fit. We got the product right because it solved the real problem like you talked about in, you know, in the market. And that problem was hydration. You know, people don't drink enough water. So we made it really, really simple.

14:06we put time markers on the bottle to remind people when to drink. So the function of the product changed immediately. Like there was so many different water bottles out there, but we changed the function of it. We made the design really cool. And when you get that piece of the puzzle right, when it comes to launching an e-commerce brand, the product just flies off the shelf. Yes, marketing is still important, but you just get people buying and you don't like really have to market that hard. You don't have to use Facebook ads. The word spreads. People are going out there, sharing your product, talking about it.

14:43And it is crazy what can happen if you get the product right.

14:46John Lee Dumas:Fire Nation, I just love that. It's all about the product. If you can actually literally create the number one solution in the form of that product to a real problem, people are going to beat a path to your doorstep. They will find you. They will rave about you. They will do their marketing for you. So Nathan, on the flip side, what are the biggest mistakes you see new e-commerce founders make over and over again? You know, you've got to use Facebook ads, and then it's going to solve your problem. It's, you know, I fell in love with my product idea, but I haven't gone out and validated it and made sure it's something people want.

15:22I think it's, It's, you know, spending so much money on stock and customizing your product only to have that product just sit at your home and just waste away because it's not something that people truly want. You know, I've been to, we, you know, since we've spoke, we really doubled down. Like, we, you know, really help e-commerce founders in a big way start and grow successful e-commerce brands. and without a doubt, like the most successful founders in this space, they double down on customer surveys. They double down on customer conversations. They just get really, really, really clear how their product is different, how they can make it better in the marketplace, the problem that they're solving.

16:09And if you get that right and it is tough, I'm not saying it's easy, but once you do, it makes the sales process so much easier. It makes marketing so much easier. But I think early stage e-commerce founders, they tattoo their idea to their arm and they will not renege on it and they have to do it. And while I respect that, you know, please go out and validate it first.

16:35John Lee Dumas:Now, I'm sure you have a lot of examples, but just what's one of your favorite products that you've worked with over the years as a brand where you're just like, man, I love this idea. It's a little controversial. so there was a founder in our community his name's Adam Hendel and he's taking his brand he he come to us he had this crazy idea for a ball wash company so uh it's uh it's basically after care for um your down below areas and uh I thought it was a crazy crazy crazy idea year and we helped him launch it. You know, he followed up one of our, many of our programs and the business did seven figures in seven months.

17:20He absolutely blew it up. And it was because it was a unique idea. It solved a clear problem in the marketplace. And, you know, then he applied the gasoline to the fire and really grew it super fast. And he ended up exiting that brand about five, six years later. So that's a, that's a crazy product, crazy story, but we have so many, like you can create a product in so many different niches or markets. It's wild.

17:46John Lee Dumas:What's controversial about clean balls?

17:52All right.

17:53John Lee Dumas:What's the number one mindset shift that separates those who win from those who quit? it's not what it's who wherever you're at in your entrepreneurial journey there is somebody out there that has solved the problem that you need to solve the biggest constraint you have right now in your business whether it's starting a business growing a business whatever it is and it's your job to go out there and find who that person is and i think once you do that's you unlock that next stage of growth because they're going to be able to help you. And you should never be afraid to invest in learning from that person or those people.

18:34John Lee Dumas:Nathan, you shared so much genius, so many value bombs with us today here at Fire Nation. We're so grateful for that. If you could just share one key takeaway from everything we talked about today, what would that one key takeaway be? Knowledge is power. And if you're listening to this podcast, like the next step is what is the number one constraint? What is the biggest problem challenge that you face and go out and find somebody that's done it and learn from that person and invest in yourself. Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with NC and JLD today, so keep up the heat.

19:10John Lee Dumas:For links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com, type Nathan in the search bar and the show notes page will pop right up. And Nathan, if Fire Nation wants to connect with you, wants to learn more from you, what is your call to action for our listeners today? We have a podcast. You can subscribe to our podcast, just the Founder podcast, Founder without the E. Or if you'd like to know how to start or grow an e-commerce business, we have an incredible membership and platform called Founder Plus. You can go to founder.com forward slash membership for a$1 trial for the first 30 days, 14 days, first 14 days.

19:44You can, yeah, you can sign up to founder.com forward slash membership for a$1 trial for the first 14 days.

19:52John Lee Dumas:Nathan, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute your brother and we'll catch you on the flip side. Thank you so much, man. Pleasure to be here. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Nathan for sponsoring today's episode. And Over the last decade, I've interviewed more than 4 ,000 of the world's most successful entrepreneurs, and I've created a revolutionary 17-step roadmap to your financial freedom and fulfillment. I put it all into my first traditionally published book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, which is personally endorsed by Seth Godin and Gary Vaynerchuk.

20:28John Lee Dumas:The Common Path to Uncommon Success is the step-by-step guidance that you need to achieve the lifestyle of your dreams, visit UncommonSuccessBook.com. I'll catch you there or on the flip side. Stop duct taping your business together. High Level runs your website, your funnels, email, automation, scheduling, payments, and memberships all in one place. And when you sign up at HighLevelFire.com, you get a 30-day free trial plus my exclusive bonus stack that includes weekly office hours with me and much more. Visit highlevelfire.com, highlevelfire.com. Fire Nation, are you ready to build something special in the next 50 days?

21:08John Lee Dumas:Check out my free YouTube series, 50 Days to Something, short and strategic step-by-step videos by me, JLD. On day 50, you'll have a valuable asset. And the best part is it's completely free. Visit eofire.com slash YouTube and start day one today.