697: I Sold My House to Fund My Idea - and Built a £26M brand

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1:03You sold your house to bring this product to life. How did you know it would sell? I basically used pretty much all of my savings from the sale of my house. And of course, it was really scary. It just gave me goosebumps. I just had this feeling I'd never taken a risk like this. There was just something in me that knew we had something really special. We're on track to do 26 million. Samantha Fairs turned Revive Collagen into a breakout wellness brand, hitting 1 million pounds in just 13 weeks, and now on track for 26 million across 6 ,000 US retail locations. We've had together two failed businesses, and we've made so many mistakes.

1:44We basically used all of those mistakes when launching Revive to make sure that we got it right this time. When we bring a product to the market, we want it to be a world first. Everyone said no, everyone shut the door. Kim Kardashian posted about her using Revive. What does that do for a business? I mean, I guess... Hear the stories, learn the proven methods, and accelerate your growth and future through entrepreneurship. Welcome to the Founder Podcast with Nathan Chan.

2:21Hey, I have a quick ask. If you're loving these episodes, leaving a quick review is honestly the best way to support us. It helps the show grow and means we can keep bringing you the founder stories and insights you tune in for. Please share it with a friend. Thank you so much. Now, let's get into it. All right. Well, Sam, welcome to the Founder Podcast. Super excited to have you here. I'm going to ask you a question. You launched Revive Collagen in August of 2020, COVID days in the middle of a global pandemic. You bootstrapped the business entirely. You sold your house to fund it. And within 13 weeks, you did 1 million pounds in sales, which is crazy.

3:00So looking back at that launch, what actually drove that immediate traction? First of all, hi, thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to be here today. Yeah, so it's pretty incredible actually, especially as it was a lockdown business. But I would say there was kind of two reasons why I think it was such a successful launch. The first being John and I, who's my business partner, we absolutely obsessed over the product. So we wanted to bring a product to the market that wasn't available, that was totally different and that was unique. It's a collagen brand, but we're type one hydrolyzed marine collagen with added vitamins and minerals.

3:40And we made it so it was convenient to drink. The branding was gorgeous. It was just different to what was on the market. And I genuinely think that people were intrigued. And I think the timing was perfect being locked down. Looking back now, I feel like people had more time to look into their wellness and kind of, you know, I feel like the consumer behaviour shifted in lockdown. And I also, on top of that, I also think over the years I've built quite a strong fan base and people trust me from and previously I used to be on reality tv and I've got many years of and people following me and staying with me like a real strong fan base and I think trust was a big part of that as well and but yeah looking back now I still can't believe the success of the launch like we never imagined that that would happen the way it did.

4:33And how long far, like how far out did you start kind of teasing and promoting that you were launching this brand before you actually launched in August? So it was around a couple of years in the making, to be honest. But then when it came up to, right, we're almost ready to go now. We're ready to press the button and this is going to be going live um I would say and actually because we didn't have much marketing spend um and it was the first time John and I had ever done a wellness and supplement brand we actually had zero experience um and the wellness industry I think sometimes can be a little bit snobbish and especially given that I come from reality tv there can be a little bit of a stigma so I was a little bit nervous about coming up to launch probably thinking you know oh you know who does she kind of think she is to launch her wellness brand it was almost like a imposter syndrome situation happening so I was a little bit anxious on kind of even promoting the fact that I was bringing out a supplement business and it's actually taken quite a while for me to really kind of get stuck in and really sing from the rooftops that it's mine and we did have a initial plan not to kind of make it a celebrity brand we wanted it to be a standalone brand because the product was so amazing But looking back now, there wasn't really much kind of plan in place before the product launch it launched.

6:01It was just kind of right. You know, we believe in this product. We believe it's going to be amazing. Let's just try and get it out there and hopefully people will like it. Yeah, okay. So when you first launch on the first day, you hit a million pounds in sales in, what, 13 weeks, three months. How much did you make on the first day? And did you, like, what happened? Take me back. Like, the Shopify cha-ching was just going crazy and you just started packing order. Like, talk me through it. So when we, so obviously we was all kind of like on tender hooks on Shopify and I just posted. We'd done that a few days before.

6:40something's coming like just on Instagram really because it's the only platform that I use and then on the day of launch I'd posted saying we're live um you know I've had I told a little bit about my story because I had hormonal acne after having my um second child Rosie and Revive was born from my own skin problems so it was very much like me being the founder speaking about my skin issues and why I've brought this product to the market and why I wanted to create this product and why it's different. So I'd done this like one video just basically talking about my skin issues and what Revive Collagen was and posted that.

7:19And it just went, it's mad because I've had two failed businesses. So to see like the engagement go through the roof on Shopify was just like, we just couldn't believe it to be honest. And John and I wasn't together at the time. I can't remember. It was something to do with lockdown. It wasn't actually together when we launched this. And we was both on the phone. It was just like we couldn't believe it. And then each day was just getting more and more interest, more and more traction. And I can't actually remember how much we made on the first day, but it was tens of thousands, tens of thousands, yeah.

7:55And you sold your house to bring this product to life. Can you tell me how did you know it would sell? Like this is pretty high stakes. You said you've failed two businesses previously. Before you commit that kind of money, how did you get the conviction and confidence? That's a really good question because people ask me that a lot. I basically used pretty much all of my savings from the sale of my house to fund the business. And of course, it was really scary. and I discussed it with my like my partner internally because I was like well these are all my savings what you know what do you think but I John and I just genuinely knew that we had an amazing product like it just gave me goosebumps I just had this feeling and you know sometimes I think in life you do have to take risks I'd never taken a risk like this I'm always usually quite shrewd with my money and you know I was like this is for our next property we're going to use it as deposit but there was just something in me that knew we had something really special um and I just I just took the risk and run with it and I've never looked back and I just think that John and I are very aligned with our goals and where we wanted the business to go um we'd had together two failed businesses um e-commerce and we've made so many mistakes and we're so grateful for those mistakes and you probably hear this a lot because we basically used all of those mistakes when launching Revive to make sure that we got it right this time.

9:33Yes, I think we probably overspent in the early days because it was wellness industry and it was the first time we'd ever kind of tapped into wellness. But we definitely launched with so much confidence from the failures that we'd had before. And can you tell me about those mistakes? Because I'm sure I can hear and on behalf of all of our guests listening and viewers, like I know that like that's what I want to know. Like what were the mistakes? What did you do differently? So when we had two clothing businesses, technically three, but the third one we merged. So we had like a women's fashion clothing business.

10:14Then we designed their own brand and it was all online. So the one that went the biggest was a brand that we had called All Bits London and it was fashion and we was doing it was doing amazing like I mean obviously fashion is really competitive but at the time I was filming on reality TV you know I was appearing here there and everywhere so it was a great leverage to promote clothing and I was wearing all the clothes it was doing really well and we just overspend we got a a huge fancy office we got tons of staff um we wasn't managing cash flow properly um we was doing like i don't know monthly forecasts you know we just kind of drowned and we wasn't making a profit in the end and we had to literally one day lay everyone off and just shut down because it just wasn't turning a profit.

11:06And looking back now, you know, for example, with Revive Collagen, we've been, it'll be six years this August. We didn't get our office until December just gone. So we didn't have an office for five and a half years. And I think because we were so scarred from, you know, getting a big fancy office with all bits London that, you know, it was a waste. But, you know, we just kind of, with Revive, we'd done everything properly this time. and we had no overheads for a long time and we was really strategic and careful with our hires. You know, for the first year it was just four of us. It was myself, John, Becky from customer service, who's still customer service today, and our distribution centre.

11:50And that was us for a very long time until we really, like, you know, started thinking, right, okay, now we need to take this to the next level and make some hires. Yeah. And I'm curious, you did two years of R &D before you launched this product. So you said you were spending quite some time on it. Tell me why and tell me, you know, there are still like a lot of supplement brands. This is a competitive space as well, just as competitive as fashion. And what did you do? Why did it take so long? Like, what was it? Like, how did you find your manufacturer? Talk me through all of that. And how much did it cost, like, going through that process?

12:35So it was actually a really, really difficult process. So most manufacturers said it couldn't be done. Everyone said no. Everyone shut the door. Everyone was like, your collagen count's too high. and we basically wanted to add in extra vitamins and minerals to make it like super potent, something different to what everybody else is doing. And marine collagen is quite hard to mask the flavour. So we didn't want to have sugar in our product. We wanted to have natural stevia and botanical extracts. Everyone said no. This is why it took so long. And then eventually we partnered with a UK lab. We always wanted to be UK found and made and found in the UK.

13:16And they basically believed in our vision and they made it happen. Yes, it was more expensive. It took us a long time to find them, to find them rather, but they are actually today still our manufacturers. So it's been like we've been on this journey together. but I would say even though it was a painful process and very expensive, I would say that what's good about it looking back now is that our unique, sorry, our formula is like really unique so it's almost impossible to replicate. So I think that's one pro about the whole process. Yeah, and you said it was expensive. Are you able to share like how much does it cost to start like a supplement brand?

13:59Like how many units did you start with to even be able to, you know, sell a million pound worth of product? Like, yeah, talk me through that. Well, we lost, we didn't lose money, but like, you know, it's trial and error. We had to keep going back to the drawing board with like flavors and texture and stuff like that. So I would say the process probably started at around 30 to 40 ,000. And then when we placed our first order, I actually genuinely can't think how much the first order was. I should probably know this. I think it was around about£120 ,000. The product itself is really expensive to make because it's type one hydroly hydrolyzed marine collagen and it's just so unique like I said so it is more on the pricier side of making a product compared to like collagen tablets or gummies or powder so it was a huge investment and it didn't leave us any money for like marketing or anything, to be honest.

14:59Yeah. And I want to talk about that because one thing you did do, you know, so you bootstrapped the business, you haven't raised any outside capital, which is super impressive. So you had really not much marketing budget at all, but you posted one honest video around your struggles. And that really, really, really helped the brand in that first few months why do you think that is and and what would you say to founders when it comes to you know creating like a like a really raw open honest video founder led around your product and using it to like i i'm sure you you didn't really think oh this is going to build a lot of trust but it did and it was a really effective so can you talk us through that and what message you would have to founders there.

15:56Because a lot of founders are scared to get on camera and talk about their product and be raw and honest. And yeah, talk me through that. Totally. And actually, it's really, you're so right. I've actually been mentoring a few ladies recently in business. And the one thing they all say to me is, oh, I can't film myself. I can't hear myself. I don't have the confidence to do it. I find it really cringy. And to be honest, if you don't have much marketing spend, Look, not everyone has to go down the founder-led route and film themselves, film the process. And I understand that. That doesn't always have to happen.

16:29But there is something to be said about when you've built your business and you're speaking from your own experience, your own struggles, and you've brought a product to the market that really comes from a special place and comes from the heart. That's marketing gold. That's real, true, honest, you know, vulnerable stories that would, you know, people would love to explore your product and know more about it. And yes, I have a following because I've been on TV before. But over the years, I've built a trust with my followers because I love holistic health and well-being. I'm not perfect, but I'm really interested in it.

17:13I always share little things here and there, little potions and creams. And, you know, over the years, I've definitely built up this kind of trust. So when I launched Revive Collagen and spoke all about my skin issues, showed lots of raw images of how my skin was. And at the time I was filming reality TV and I was so mentally in a really like, I was really struggling because when I was filming, I was like, I don't want to film. I don't want to be on camera. I don't want to leave the house. and it's definitely something that comes from within like because you know friends and family my partner was like you know you're beautiful it's fine don't worry about it but it's something that it does to you as a woman um like if you've got acne it just knocks your confidence and you just feel like you can't really look people in the eye and talk because you're thinking all you're thinking is oh they're looking at my skin you know and I just went so raw and deep and spoke about you know my struggles that I'd had with my skin and when my skin started to get better I felt like a new person and my confidence had come back and you know I've at the time I had two really young children um and I I just think there's just it's just such an amazing marketing tool to be able to share your own story and I would say to anyone that is um nervous or thinks it's cringy um And honestly, it's really not.

18:39And we all want to hear from your story. We, you know, there's so much AI and, you know, gorgeous, glossy advertising. But ultimately, we want to hear your story. We want to hear about, you know, your founder story and why this business is here. And back yourself. You can do it. Yeah, and I think one thing that a lot of people don't know is you can put your camera out in front of you and use an app like a teleprompter app, get chat GPT, Claude, whatever to put a script together for you. And you can copy and paste that into the teleprompter app. And then you can just read it. Like you don't want to make it obvious you're reading it, and no one would know.

19:25And that really helps you kind of unlock. A lot of people don't know that. Like, do you use the teleprompter much, like a teleprompter app when you do content? Yeah, I've got teleprompter. Yeah. And you know what? It's interesting that you said that because, you know, I actually only discovered it recently. So I used to write notes. So I would write bullet points, look at the camera, and then like try and memorize my bullet points. And I was just like, and then when I discovered teleprompter, I was like, oh my gosh, why did I not know this? Yeah, it's crazy. You know, there's so many ways to help.

19:55And then actually since using teleprompter, I've got way better doing it on my own because it's, you know, getting used to hearing the sound of your own voice, reading something like quite substantial and then like filming yourself at the same time. You learn, don't you? I'm learning every single day on the job, you know. So, yeah, it's great. Teleprompter is perfect. I agree. I agree. See, a lot of people don't realize that. And, you know, like you said, I agree. You don't have to put yourself out there. But I tell you what, it is an incredible hack in a competitive market. and you know if you can do it and do it well it works like that's a common thread that I see amongst so many successful founders that I'm interviewing the ones that are doing founder led content you know we have a community of DTC founders where we help them scale their ads so you have to be doing at least a few hundred thousand dollars a year you know you have to be spending five ten thousand dollars a month to work with us in our community but we help you scale your ads and we see all the creatives that work we have millions and millions and millions of dollars of data and i'll tell you what we always see founder-led content always out convert in terms of creative it's just so powerful like you just can't beat it i agree yeah we do the same on meta ads and when my face is on there and i'm just chatting away about like you know my skin issues or why our products different to others.

21:21People do. It just works. So it just works. Yeah, yeah. We call them yapper ads. So it's just kind of just yapping. You're just like kind of speaking freely and it's just like it catches people by surprise. They can see it's authentic. I think, like you said, in this age of AI, people can tell, right? Of course. Yeah, we can tell. We can tell. So, all right, talk to me about kind of that first 13 weeks, the fulfillment crisis. so awesome around sales it must have been so painful around labs suppliers fulfillment how did you navigate that well it was quite a tricky time because obviously we never expected to sell as much as we did and scale as quickly as we did um we we basically made sure that we was always speaking to the customer.

22:20We had all hands on deck on customer service to make sure that we, you know, didn't lose those customers. And that was the main thing was keeping that relationship with them. There was a slight delay after the first launch because like I said, we didn't realise that we would sell as much stock as we did. But I guess it was such a, you know, we were quite lucky in a sense because we were manufacturing in the UK. So the process was quite seamless. as we didn't have anything to, you know, ship from overseas or any delays in kind of speaking to our suppliers. So it was just kind of, there was little moments of delays, but we just literally spoke to our customers and was like praying that we wasn't going to lose those subscribers because that was, you know, such a huge hit for us when we first launched.

23:11So talk me through cash flow as well. how you've bootstrapped the business for the past six years uh you know supplements quite intensive you've grown the business very fast how have you been able to manage cash flow so i think we took well what we did was obviously from our mistakes that we made in our previous businesses was that we realized that we need to be looking at our accounts weekly not monthly not every three months and just making sure that we're on top of cash flow. And obviously, logistically, like it can look great on paper that you're making, you know, millions, but the overheads and, you know, making sure that our suppliers and our retailers are getting the stock on time, then we have to wait for them to pay their invoices.

23:58You know, it's definitely not my area in the business. So we have now like a finance director. And John, my business partner, is very much across the finance side of the business. But luckily, because of all of the mistakes that we'd made in the past, that didn't happen with us this time. And we just make sure that it was just efficient and that we were on top of it weekly. At some points, almost like daily, you know, just making sure that everything was running how it should be. And talk to me around ambassadors. So you have ambassadors for your brand and you manifested Amanda Holden. So she was your first major UK ambassador.

24:43You landed her in 2021. So only like, you know, a year and a half, basically after you'd launched. So you moved pretty fast on ambassadors and you put her on 200 London buses to launch the enhanced plus 10 ,000 milligrams range for the 40 plus market. So how did you decide to make a bet on that partnership and then other ambassadors that you've worked with? And how did you know if it's paid off? So with Amanda, I did manifest her and I actually pulled up because we're going to be celebrating our six year anniversary this August. I pulled up a piece of paper that I'd wrote down all my goals and having an ambassador was my goal is always up to have Amanda.

25:27Like over here in the UK, she's the most like recognizable TV personality. She's on multiple TV shows. She's on a radio station here in the UK, which is, goes out to millions. And she's just fabulous. And I was like, we need Amanda for the new product. And what happened was, how it worked was we ended up sending Amanda lots of product. Amanda loved the product. She was asking for more for her friends and family. what we wanted to do was to make sure that Amanda knew who we were, knew who we were, knew what we meant as a business. And we wanted her to really like and love the product before we took her on as an ambassador.

26:07And it worked out. We got Amanda. She loved the product. So when she was talking about the product in like all of our socials and stuff, it was all really organic because she'd already been taking it for quite a few months. Amanda's still with us today. So she's been with us five years. So it just shows you that that kind of relationship we've built and she's like part of the revive family really has helped um and you mentioned the bus campaign so because we'd spent quite a lot on amanda as having like a celebrity face to the product we was like how are we going to launch this because you know we haven't really got much marketing spent and we actually got a really good deal on the buses so in london if the if the buses um like if the advertising falls off and they've got like spare buses last minute for what would be like a six-figure rate card we got to pay for it for around when we got to pay like around 20 percent of what that would cost and we just blew it up on socials we was like you know this big London bus campaign Amanda's face everywhere that actually it was quite inexpensive but it was really high impact because I remember people being like wow like your brand is all over these buses in London and this is amazing you've got Amanda Holden but ultimately it actually didn't really cost us that much to do the bus campaign but um amanda's been great everyone in the uk knows amanda and when we were um well when us and our retail team were pitching to boots and holland and barrett are like really big retailers here in the uk just when you say you've got amanda they're like wow like you know it's it does bring credibility to the brand um and she speaks about it so honestly and openly and she's been with us for a long time now and I just yeah I've I've loved having I've loved I've loved the way we've done it and that's what we've done moving forward like we recently had Mel Beebe our or she still is our ambassador for our menopause range and again we done the same what we done with Amanda we were sending her loads of products we wanted to make sure that she loved it and it's so funny because when the first time we met Mel when we first done our photo shoot with her and like we agreed terms and she came on as an ambassador.

28:20She was just like, you know, I was taking like 10 sachets a day for my menopause and I felt, and we was at 10. I was like, you only need to take one a day, Mel. She was like, I love it. But yeah, I just love working with ambassadors and celebrities that genuinely love the brand. I think it really matters. Yeah. And what's interesting as well is rather than just selling one supplement for everyone, you guys actually target people at certain life specific stages. Like you have Menopause Max, which you launch with Mel B, and that's, you know, squared, like aimed at, you know, hormonal transition that most brands ignore.

29:04So how did you work out to kind of build your brand and products around certain life stages? And how do you know when to go after another stage next? Like, how did you work that out? Well, we launched with just one product. And that was aimed at, you know, okay, of course, like to improve hair, skin and nails, texture, it's collagen, yeah. But we put aloe vera in that. And that was for really super hydrating for someone that had like acne or spots. and then we was like right we need to bring out our next product and our next product was an enhanced plus version of that and it had like keratin vitamin c d b6 b12 that was our kind of that still is at the moment our hero products that's the one that amanda launched and then we was like right we've got these two products that are doing amazing we've got amanda with enhanced plus everything's going great we're like now we need to i guess mine and john's goal was to is to be the the most recognizable liquid collagen brand brand globally and we're like we need to build out the products and what we've always said is when we bring a product to the market we want it to be a world first we want it to be something that's not already out there and something that's totally different to what's on the market and for example with the menopause range there's there was nothing on the market that we were offering so we were giving you all added minerals and vitamins to help with your symptoms.

30:29But then it always comes back to collagen. So it always comes back to the fact that we're type 1 hydrolyzed marine collagen with added vitamins and minerals, easy to drink on the go. And it's just about, and now we've got an adaptogen range as well. We've got a vegan product. We've got something for everyone. We're not stopping there. There's so much more coming this year, even alone. But we just want to be the brand that people go to. And there's actually something for every stage of life with, again, having the type 1 hydrolyzed marine collagen, which is the best type of collagen that you can have for your hair skin and nails.

31:10So let's talk about other ambassadors. So talk to me around the Kim Kardashian moment. So in 2024, Kim Kardashian posted about her using Revive and it was completely organic. And this came from another one of your ambassadors, Chris Appleton, who gifted her a year's supply, effectively putting you in front of hundreds of millions of people overnight. What does that do for a business? So it's really interesting, actually, because I think people would assume, I'm actually not sure how many followers Kim's got at the moment, but let's just say it's plus 350 million. I think everyone would assume that, you know, you're going to have this like sales day and the business is going to be going crazy.

31:59But there wasn't actually a dramatic spike in direct sales. so yeah there wasn't at all really but I don't think celebrity posts drive immediate sales like they did 10 years ago I think things definitely changed um but the biggest value wasn't just that short-term post it was brand credibility so um the post accelerated conversations with mail retailers especially in the US so around that time we were um online and I think we were only in CVS at the time, but we're now across 6 ,000 stores in the US in Ulta, Walgreens. And having that organic post from Kim and then being in meetings with retailers really gave us credibility.

32:51So it was more like the overall package rather than like the, you know, the spike in sales directly after she posted. So there is a huge impact, but it was different to what I think what people assumed would have happened. Yeah. And you talked about moving into the US. So you guys are now in like, I think over 5 ,000 plus retailers, retail stores in the US, Alta, walgreens cvs uh the vitamin shop so how did you how did you find that journey taking you know a brand that is somewhat uk based and that's where most of your customers are expanding now into the us what advice would you give to founders that you know a you're in your local hometown whether it's Australia, whether it's US going to UK or Canada going to the US, what advice would you give to founders getting into big retailers into a different region?

33:53So expanding into the US has been challenging, particularly with tariffs and shipping costs for us. And it hasn't actually been an easy process. It's been going on for quite a few years now. And initially all of our products manufactured here in the UK and shipped to the US by sea. So like for us, exporting liquid products created longer lead times and just added like logistical, like a logistical nightmare really. But, you know, after like maybe like a year in the market, we understand now the sales, volumes and demand patterns. And for us, the next step is to localise production in the US. and that for us will like reduce costs, improve supply chain and shorten need times and stuff like that.