Hi team,
We’re heading into August, my birthday month. And while that used to mean beach days and cocktails, this year it means something else entirely: a new roof, a wife working 13-hour residency shifts, two kids under four and a half, and the tiniest sliver of hope for a real vacation in October. We booked Lisbon on points, with three nights in Comporta and two in the city. Let’s see if we actually make it.
Still blows my mind that I haven’t paid for a vacation in ten years. Bless the points gods. Country number 37.
This week, I had one of the most interesting calls I’ve had in years.
I hopped on a call with a founder based on a small European island. Figured it’d be a quick, casual chat. Instead, I found out he’s doing over $100 million a year with fewer than 10 employees. The business is wildly profitable. He’s focused, clear-headed, and not even a little stressed.
It broke my brain a little. In the best way.
This week’s newsletter is about that call and what it taught me about focus, retention, and the kind of brand building that actually scales.
Let’s get into it.
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The Empire You’ve Never Heard Of
The founder runs a supplement company.
You won’t find it splashed across Instagram. You won’t hear about it at DTC conferences. But the numbers are staggering.
$120M+ in annual revenue
Nearly all from Amazon
Sub-10 headcount
High margins
No outside funding
Here’s how he pulled it off.
What They Did Right
1. He picked a smart lane:
He didn’t create a new category. He studied what was already selling and added something meaningful. A simple twist on a known product. No crazy education curve. Just a better version of what people were already searching for, and he latched onto that trend.
We’ve seen a ton of that with collagen, collostrum, creatine, etc. Track what is trending and push hard with one unique advantage.
The CoFounder of OLIPOP David Lester used to say this a ton while I was there:
”Break one rule, and break it hard”
Change one thing dramatically while keeping everything else familiar
2. He got world-class at Amazon CRO:
Every part of the listing was built with intent. Titles for SEO. Bullets for skimming. Images for trust. He runs tests constantly and keeps iterating.
He’s got a few folks that are obsessive and track every single detail. He knew what worked and why it worked and continued iterating until an “unknown brand” is absolutely crushing.
The titles are a great example. Amazon’s search algorithm puts real weight on title keywords, so every word is chosen to match what shoppers are typing. It’s not branding. It’s search logic. He includes product type, benefit, format, use case, and more, all structured to show up more often and rank higher.
There’s a skill to it. If you leave out a key term, you miss traffic. If you overdo it, Amazon suppresses the listing. You’re writing for the algorithm, but you still have to keep the human in mind. He gets it right every time.
3. He lives deep inside Amazon PPC:
Most brands guess. He tracks. Every campaign, every bid, every change gets measured and logged. He speaks in metrics. Knows his ACOS and TACOS like his own pulse. It’s a real advantage when you understand the levers and pull them daily.
They have creative offers, prime exclusive deals, smart couponing and very subtle discounting to push purchase one.
And good news is that supplements are inherently replenishable.
4. He built for Subscribe & Save from day one:
Because his products made for repeat use, he makes it compelling enough to get them in the ground floor as a subscriber. Gives a substantial discount for first subscribe and save, and coupled with his high review count and Amazon now showing x,000 purchased in last 30 days, it helps him leverage that social proof to win.
5. He cracked reviews the clean way:
He didn’t pay for reviews or sneak in cards asking for 5 stars. He figured out what Amazon allows and stayed within the lines. Timing, wording, inserts, follow-ups. All tested, all tuned. The result is a wall of strong reviews that keep working for him long after the ads stop.
What It Made Me Rethink
Here’s what hit me the hardest.
This business breaks every DTC rule I’ve been taught to care about.
The branding is barebones. The dot com is an afterthought. There are no clever flows or community-building campaigns. And yet, it’s printing money.
Because it’s focused.
Focused on the right platform. Focused on the right distribution model. Focused on creating long-term value without shiny distractions.
It made me realize how many of us get caught chasing the wrong signals. We obsess over design awards, organic reach, aesthetic consistency, viral moments, and forget that most businesses are still just about product, pricing, placement, and repeat purchase.
It also reminded me that not every brand should play the same game.
If you’re building a high-frequency purchase product for an audience that already shops on Amazon, maybe your goal isn’t to be the next Graza. Maybe your goal is to win where people are already searching.
And to do that, you don’t necessarily need to be a master storyteller. You need to be a master tactician.
This founder is not chase every shiny object. He got world-class at a few specific things and ignored everything else.
And yeah, now he’s running a $100M+ business from a European island with a team small enough to fit in a single van.
There’s a lesson in there for all of us.
That’s it for this week!
Any topics you'd like to see me cover in the future?
Just shoot me a DM or an email!
Cheers,
Eli 💛
P.S. If you want to figure out how to get your brand to rank high in LLMs and show up in ChatGPT, Gemini, and more… check this out.
Before reading I’m guessing… IQBAR?