Lock-In by HappyStack 🥞

This week, we sit down with Marisa Poster, the co-founder behind PerfectTed, the matcha-powered energy brand that's become Europe's biggest in under five years.A caffeine-addicted finance grad with an ADHD diagnosis she was too ashamed to admit, Marisa discovered matcha face-down in a university library after one crash too many — then moved to London and found a country that didn't sell it. Forty-five days after landing, she and her co-founders (her husband Levi and his brother Teddy) had incorporated the business. Five years on, PerfectTed is Europe's #1 matcha brand — stocked in 40,000+ points of distribution, valued at over £140m, and one of the largest matcha buyers on earth.From a matcha latte that never made it to market, to a can you can't miss on a supermarket shelf, this is a masterclass in turning a niche obsession into a mainstream category.Marisa breaks down why she treated Dragon's Den as a pure marketing play — studying every pitch that ever pulled all five offers, and memorising the exact glue on her labels in case a Dragon asked — and why she still chose Steven Bartlett's money over bigger names. She gets candid about hiding her ADHD for years, convinced it made her less credible as a founder. And she shares how PerfectTed scaled nationally on almost no paid ads, by turning supermarket shelves into billboards.She also addresses the elephant in the room — the global matcha shortage — with maybe the most honest line a founder's ever given about their own success: "I don't want to say we caused it, but…"Strategic, candid, and packed with brand lessons you won't find in a marketing textbook.Timestamps:00:00 Building Europe's #1 Matcha Brand00:50 ADHD, Anxiety & Finding Matcha in a Library03:54 Moving to London to a Country With No Matcha05:49 Why the Energy Category Overlooked Women13:01 45 Days to Incorporate & the Pivot to Cans16:18 The Name "PerfectTed" & Buying From People21:08 Dragon's Den Packaging & the "Healthy Energy" Pivot24:08 Why the Brand Is Green: Nature's Neutral27:14 Building With Her Husband & His Brother30:54 Why Fun Is a Prerequisite for Success34:20 Kickstarter Selling Out in a Day36:49 Treating Dragon's Den as a Marketing Play40:21 Choosing Steven Bartlett: "Take Smart Money"43:36 No Paid Ads & the Global Matcha Shortage45:48 Cracking Retail: Shelves as Billboards51:16 What's Next: Protein Lattes & New Categories53:33 The Heinz Collab TeaseFollow us across our socials:Twitter: https://x.com/happystackhqLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/happystackhqInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/happystackhqCheck out the HappyStack website: https://www.happystack.com/Stack the odds. 🥞#ecommerce #podcast #founder #business #happystack #thelockin

This week, we sit down with Aimee Connolly, the founder behind Sculpted by Aimee — the Irish makeup brand on track to become Ireland's first billion-dollar beauty business, still 100% owned by its founder.___Follow us across our socials:Twitter: https://x.com/happystackhqLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/happystackhqInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/happystackhq___Check out the HappyStack website: https://www.happystack.com/Stack the odds. 🥞

This week, we sit down with Ashley McDonnell, the Galway-born founder building Ireland's first luxury goods group (VYKO) after a decade inside LVMH and Puig.Ashley walked into Christian Dior at 22 as a data analyst, ended up doing €70 million in solo travel retail sales, then spent five years scaling Puig through Europe's biggest IPO of 2024. Now she's back home and raising €50 million to do something nobody has ever done, turn Ireland into a global luxury powerhouse.From the inside playbook on how LVMH, Puig and L'Oréal actually print money, to why every fashion brand you know is secretly a fragrance business, to the €1 billion Irish luxury market that's been quietly funnelling out of the country for decades. Ashley breaks down the VYKO Group thesis, the 500 Irish brands she's scanned, and the playbook for building an Irish LVMH from the ground up.

This week, we sit down with Lucie MacLeod, the founder behind HairSyrup the Sunday Times Founder of the Year who built a built a million pound empire after being rejected by all 6 dragons on Dragons Den.Lucie's story is chaos turned into strategy. She started mixing hair oils in mustard bottles in her student kitchen, gave away her formula on TikTok, then deleted her viral account. When thousands of people begged to buy her products, she ignored them. Her parents said absolutely not. She did it anyway.From a £3.99/month website to the Dragon's Den experience that everyone saw on TV to turning rejection by all six Dragons into 22 million profile views and a 66% revenue jump. Why she refuses to chase viral tactics, deliberately runs an 8-10% affiliate model in an industry that does 80-90%, and told her TikTok account manager she'll never make £2m on a live - and doesn't want to.Raw, funny, and packed with lessons you won't find in any startup playbook.

This week, we sit down with the founders of Spot & Tango, one of the few DTC brands that scaled to nine figures without chasing growth at all costs.Russel and Dylan break down how they went from cooking dog food in their kitchen to building a $100M/ year pet food company, why they chose to own manufacturing instead of outsourcing, and how they perceive profitability as a responsibility and not a bonus.From being prudent operators to dog lovers we talk about the moments where things nearly broke, the risks most founders avoid, and why they believe discipline beats speed when building something that lasts.Honest, opinionated, and packed with real lessons, this episode is about building a durable consumer brand, making hard decisions early, and staying focused when the pressure to move faster is everywhere.

This week, we sit down with Lukas Pakter, the 24-year-old founder behind Haus, Trybe, and Outliers. Lukas has built a personal brand generating millions in revenue, and in this conversation he walks through his actual playbook—why audience quality matters more than size, and how the right mentor helped him scale from £100K a month to £100K a day.We cover his approach to content, the systems he's built to scale beyond himself, and the realities of growing modern ecom businesses. He also gets honest about nearly going bankrupt, taking a deal everyone advised against, and the lessons that shaped how he operates today.Practical, direct, and full of specific insights you can actually use.

This week, we sit down with Aimee Smale, the inspiring founder behind Odd Muse. In four years she's taken the cult British womenswear brand from a bedroom startup to a £30m business. Aimee opens up about spotting the gap in the market for accessible luxury, quitting ASOS without a plan, and quite literally dismantling her bed to make room for a desk. From making £10 logos and packing orders herself, to designing the blazer that changed everything, this is a masterclass in betting on yourself.Aimee speaks candidly about online pile-ons, media attacks, and why the last year has been her hardest yet. She also breaks down the decisions that shaped Odd Muse’s growth, and why she believes Odd Muse can be a £100m brand, even if she doesn’t want to take it there alone.Honest, high-stakes, and full of lessons you won’t hear in a pitch deck. Timestamps:00:00 Intro & Early Years of Odd Muse12:00 Taking Impulsive Risks14:55 Importance of Building a Rounded Skillset19:30 How One Hero Product Can Change Your Life22:20 Importance of Being Your Own Customer28:00 The Influencer Moment That Changed Odd Muse33:30 Founder-Led Marketing37:00 Dealing With Online Trolls Over The Last 12 Months46:08 Why She's Now Stepping Back & Hiring a CEO53:25 How Moving to New York Changed Her Mindset55:30 The Strategy Behind Odd Muse's Retail Stores01:01:30 Growing the Wholesale Business

Season 3 kicks off with a heavyweight episode.This week, we’re joined by three operators who’ve collectively spent more than £100 million on Meta in the last 18 months - and who sit behind some of the UK’s fastest-growing consumer brands.Jack Rubin, founder of Purdy & Figg, the DTC cleaning brand now generating £50M+ in annual revenue.Olly Hudson, a co-founder of Soar With Us, the UK’s largest DTC growth agency. And returning fan-favourite Matt Kelly, founder of Spacegoods, back after one of our most memorable episodes.This conversation is exactly what brand owners talk about over a pint (or three). We go deep on:The real state of Meta ads right nowHow AI is reshaping acquisitionWhy doubling down on your influencer strategy is no longer optionalWhat it actually takes to scale a modern DTC brand in 2025If you’re looking to sharpen your customer acquisition strategy over the next 12 months, this is the episode you’ll want to binge.

Meet Olivia Jenkins - the founder behind the fastest-growing jewellery brand in e-commerce.In 2020, she was burnt out, broke, and dealing with the recent loss of her mum. Alongside her partner Jack, she channelled this grief to start D. Louise — a multi-million pound jewellery brand now loved by thousands of women across the UK from Molly-Mae to Maya Jama.In this unfiltered episode, Olivia shares how she turned a side hustle into an eight-figure business.Chapters00:00 - Trailer01:10 - Introductions02:10 - Launching a brand with zero experience 08:30 - The importance of customer-centricity 10:24 - Sourcing and selling her first products13:20 - Bootstrapping the first drops 18:55 - Taking the leap full-time, & working with your partner24:50 - Black Friday: The day everything changed25:50 - Bringing Gymsharks ex-CEO on board29:50 - Importance of authenticity in collaborations33:40 - Handling negative reviews and customer experience35:10 - What made D.Louise stand out in a saturated market44:30 - Future categories and avoiding distraction47:00 - Why big brands can't copy D.Louise52:40 - Shifting Behaviours: Women buying themselves jewellery54:00 - The big vision for D.Louise56:30 - Rebranding: Telling her mother's story through design

Meet Grace Andrews, the 28-year-old Marketing Director behind the world's biggest podcast - Diary of a CEO. Grace joined Steven Bartlett as DOAC's third employee in 2020 when the podcast had just 8,000 subscribers. Through trial, error, and in Grace's own words 'lots of naivety' she built the marketing playbook that scaled the brand to more than 1 Billion listens in just four years. In our chat with Grace, we deep dive her playbook for building the world's biggest podcast while also diving into the top social media tips and trends for 2025. Not one to be missed!