717: We Started Dad Gang with $750 and One Hat - and did $40M in 4 Years
The Foundr Podcast with Nathan ChanShow Notes
Three best friends put in $250 each - $750 total - printed 100 hats in a garage, and sold out in 36 hours. No following. No ads. No business plan. Four and a half years later, Dad Gang has done over $40 million in revenue selling hats built around one idea: dads deserve better than goofy, frumpy products that make fatherhood a punchline. The craziest part? Grant, Bart and Ejay still run the entire thing with zero employees, a private Facebook group of 15,000 dads, and an equity partnership with Gary Vaynerchuk - and they're deliberately building it as a lifestyle business, not a rocket ship.
In this interview, the founders of Dad Gang break down why they sold one single hat for the first eight months, how they built a fiercely loyal community by refusing to outsource DMs, and the deliberate choice to stay lean while everyone tells them to put their foot on the gas.
What you'll learn in this interview: • Why two decades of failed side projects set them up to move fast when Dad Gang hit • The one-hat strategy: why they resisted new colors and SKUs for eight months to nail the brand first • How they turned a 40-day stockout into a community-building engine instead of a disaster • Why they boosted posts at $10 a day for audience growth instead of running conversion ads while sold out • The 15,000-dad private Facebook group that tells them exactly what products to make • Why they still answer every DM, email and comment themselves four and a half years in - no community manager • How staying lean with a 3PL and contractors let them each quit their jobs sooner • Why the hat became a symbol dads connect over offline - and the raw stories that fuel the brand • How the Gary Vee equity partnership came about through years of working with Vayner Sports first • Why they measure success by homes reached and impact on kids, not just revenue
If you're building a DTC or community-led brand, wrestling with whether to launch more products or go deeper on one, or questioning whether you have to scale at all costs, this conversation will fundamentally change how you think about community, focus, and building a business around the life you actually want.
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CONNECT WITH NATHAN CHAN Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/nathanchan LinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanhchan/
CONNECT WITH DAD GANG Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/dadgang.co/
Website → https://www.dadgang.co/
Bart's Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/theszef/
Ejay's Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/ejayodonnell/
Grant's Instagram → https://www.instagram.com/geastey/
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