684: She Bet Her House Deposit on Hair Gel - and Built an 8-Figure Brand
The Foundr Podcast with Nathan ChanShow Notes
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 average order value without a single extra product
Why she celebrates copycats - and the mindset that keeps her focused on what's next instead of what's being copied
If you're an early stage DTC founder, a content creator thinking about launching your own product, or trying to figure out how to turn a loyal audience into actual sales without burning the trust you've built, this conversation will fundamentally change how you think about community, launch strategy, and what it really takes to go from house deposit to eight figures.
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CONNECT WITH YASMINA ELMERKAOIU Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/mrs.yasmina/ LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/yasmina-elmerkaoui-191b69262/ Website → https://merkaou.com/
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