{"podcast":{"title":"The Foundr Podcast with Nathan Chan","slug":"the-foundr-podcast-with-nathan-chan-974008","podcast_index_feed_id":974008,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/YAP2464511803","website_url":"http://www.foundr.com","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/a05eea46-5a0e-11ed-ad4d-7ba38e01bc89/image/ba743e807d05cc0b025845c0eaf7ee98.png?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"Nathan Chan","episode_count":642,"summary":"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 abou…","last_synced_at":"2026-07-23T02:19:36.248441+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-foundr-podcast-with-nathan-chan-974008"},"episode":{"title":"684: She Bet Her House Deposit on Hair Gel - and Built an 8-Figure Brand","slug":"684-she-bet-her-house-deposit-on-hair-gel-and-built-an-8-figure-brand","published_at":"2026-07-16T14:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-foundr-podcast-with-nathan-chan-974008/684-she-bet-her-house-deposit-on-hair-gel-and-built-an-8-figure-brand","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-foundr-podcast-with-nathan-chan-974008","url":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/chrt.fm/track/5DA136/traffic.megaphone.fm/FMPL8167238414.mp3","audio_url":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/chrt.fm/track/5DA136/traffic.megaphone.fm/FMPL8167238414.mp3","summary":"Yasmina Elmerkaoui had one shot - use the house deposit to buy a home, or bet it all on a hair gel she'd spent two years formulating. She chose the hair gel. On launch night she packed orders until 5am, drove them to the post office herself, and woke up to find all 20,000 units - what she thought was a year's worth of stock - completely gone in 24 hours. Macao is now on track for eight figures in its third year, built on 90,000 Instagram followers, zero outside funding at launch, and a pre-launch call to her manufacturer that saved everything. In this interview, Yasmina breaks down the exact pre-launch move that meant stock was already in production when she sold out overnight, how she turned copycats into a celebration, and the investor email she kept deleting because she thought it was a scam. What you'll learn in this interview: Why she bet the house deposit on a hair gel - and the mentor conversation that pushed her over the line How nearly $10,000 in sampling and a $30,000 first run taught her what building a real product actually costs The pre-launch gut call - why she paid a deposit to start production before launch, and how it saved the business when everything sold out in 24 hours Why she started signing customer service emails under a male alias - and why it actually worked How she used UGC creators from day one to fill the feed with different faces, ethnicities, and hair types so the brand didn't rely on just her The Black Friday disaster that made a year's revenue in one week - then nearly broke her entire operation Why she kept deleting the investor email from Capital Influence because she thought it was a Facebook scam What finally convinced her to give up equity - and why it was about experience, not money The \"create your own bundle\" feature that raised…","meta_description":"Yasmina Elmerkaoui had one shot - use the house deposit to buy a home, or bet it all on a hair gel she'd spent two years formulating. She chose the hair g…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3075,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-foundr-podcast-with-nathan-chan-974008/episodes/684-she-bet-her-house-deposit-on-hair-gel-and-built-an-8-figure-brand/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-foundr-podcast-with-nathan-chan-974008/684-she-bet-her-house-deposit-on-hair-gel-and-built-an-8-figure-brand.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}