Honest Ecommerce

At 6 years old, Kevin Keller was already "stealing" his father's cologne — a habit generously tolerated by his dad — and discovering that scent could change the way you felt before you ever said a word.

That early fascination with transformation eventually became Fulton & Roark, the American fine fragrance house Keller co-founded in 2013 with $11,000 and a belief that perfumery could be both deeply personal and distinctly American.

Raised in Atlanta and educated at Georgia State University and Wake Forest University, Keller began his career in journalism before turning to music and culture, where he profiled brilliant emerging musicians and artists. What stayed with him was a fascination with culture, place, and tradition — and how those forces subtly shape the way we carry ourselves in the world.

Built without outside capital, Fulton & Roark has grown into a nationally distributed independent fragrance brand, available in nearly 500 retail locations including premier independent boutiques, select Ritz-Carlton and Omni properties, and Neiman Marcus stores and online. The brand has been featured in GQ, Vogue, and ELLE, among others, and its fragrance Roark's Cove was a finalist for the Universal Prestige category of the Fragrance of the Year Award from The Fragrance Foundation.

He lives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, with his wife and two children, and mentors young founders at Wake Forest University.

In This Conversation We Discuss:
[00:00] Introduction
[01:08] Solid fragrances vs extrait de parfum
[02:08] How the founder’s love of fragrance began
[03:16] Founding a niche brand with $11,000
[05:26] Going to market without a DTC plan
[07:39] Sponsor: IntelliGems
[09:19] The GQ feature that forced them online
[11:37] Building first websites on Squarespace
[12:37] Sponsor: Klaviyo
[14:47] Building the marketing flywheel
[18:04] Sponsor: eFulfillment Service
[19:40] Getting customers to pay for samples
[22:37] Callouts
[25:26] Why founders overrate daily metrics
[27:30] Learning to delegate as a founder
[27:54] Where to find Fulton & Roark
[29:02] Final thoughts

Resources:
Subscribe to Honest Ecommerce on Youtube
American Fine Fragrance fultonandroark.com/ 
Follow Kevin Keller linkedin.com/in/kevinwilliamkeller 
Book a demo today at intelligems.io/ 
Migrate and grow more klaviyo.com/honest 
Lower scale costs today FulfillmentService.com/honest 

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Alexander Morabbi Wulsch is a Danish entrepreneur and business leader. Previously, he has held leadership roles in several companies across sectors including design (URU Design) and digital marketing/social media (Nordic Social).

Alexander's background also includes earlier ventures, after a stint in banking he launched an e-commerce business selling socks online, before eventually co-founding Nordic Social which was sold to PE in 2023. Today, he is the CMO of OMHU, one of Europe's fast growing D2C brands.

In This Conversation We Discuss:
[00:00] Introduction
[01:56] Starting young in Ecommerce 
[02:55] Joining brands as an early as employee
[03:44] Lessons from a failed first business
[04:52] AOV then versus now
[05:23] Unit economics simply explained
[06:51] Sponsor: Klaviyo
[09:00] Bundling and upselling on big-ticket items
[10:18] Leaning and maximizing social first strategy
[11:47] Why doubling down beats spreading thin
[13:08] Building influencer teams in today’s market
[14:04] Sponsor: Intelligems
[15:59] Remembering the zero discount policy
[17:26] Training customers to anticipate sales
[18:50] Sponsor: eFulfillment Service
[20:25] Discovering the long customer journey
[22:32] Learning curves of a European brand in the US
[24:49] Callouts
[26:05] Navigating culture and politics in business
[28:22] Difference of Brand and product led growth

Resources:
Subscribe to Honest Ecommerce on Youtube
Home of the TEDDY Sofa omhucph.com/ 
Follow Alexander Morabbi Wulsch alexander-morabbi-wulsch-4486b3113
Get your free demo klaviyo.com/honest 
Book a demo today at intelligems.io/ 
Lower scale costs today eFulfillmentService.com/honest 

If you're enjoying the show, we'd love it if you left Honest Ecommerce a review on Apple Podcasts. It makes a huge impact on the success of the podcast, and we love reading every one of your reviews!

Andrea Faulkner Williams is the head mama and co-founder of Tubby Todd Bath Co., which she launched with her husband, Brian Todd, as a solution to her own family’s sensitive skin in 2014. For years her family struggled with dryness and eczema, and smooth skin always seemed impossibly out of reach. It was frustrating spending money on one product after another that wasn’t helpful, clean, or safe for their little ones. 

Out of those discouragements came a drive and passion to create clean bath and skincare staples and they spent years developing products and testing them in their own home. Since then, Tubby Todd has grown into an entire line of body care basics. She lives in San Diego with her husband and four little ones.

In This Conversation We Discuss:
00:00 Introduction
01:58 The entrepreneurial dream that started it all
04:06 Launching with zero money and no retail shelf
04:39 How her husband got the idea from his job
06:42 Skipping retail to build direct on Shopify
08:30 Sponsor: IntelliGems
10:22 What "community-based brands" really means
12:22 Why small goals matter more than big ones
12:53 Landing as the #1 baby skincare brand
14:49 Sponsor: Klaviyo
17:24 Balancing family while building a business
18:57 Biggest hiring mistakes and lessons learned
19:41 Why you should fire people faster
20:55 Sponsor: eFulfillment Service
21:45 The hardest part of entrepreneurship: building a team
23:26 Staying humble and not letting ego run the team
24:34 Callouts
24:44 Why employment tenure makes you a better founder
27:21 Not needing a radical idea, just a better one
28:05 Selling 70% of the company to private equity
30:01 Starting something new always feels uncomfortable
32:35 Breaking down the best-selling three-step bundle
33:17 How to connect and where to find Tubby Todd

Resources:
Subscribe to Honest Ecommerce on Youtube
Gentle Baby Skincare for Sensitive Skin tubbytodd.com/
Follow Andrea Faulkner linkedin.com/in/andreafaulknerwilliams  
Book a demo today at intelligems.io/
Get your free demo klaviyo.com/honest
Lower scale costs today eFulfillmentService.com/honest  

If you’re enjoying the show, we’d love it if you left Honest Ecommerce a review on Apple Podcasts. It makes a huge impact on the success of the podcast, and we love reading every one of your reviews!

M. Sal had his own Ecommerce store. He realized that no Canadian accountant understands US tax and virtually no one understands a Shopify business. That’s what led him to start SAL Accounting where their team now solve these problems for brands.

In This Conversation We Discuss: 
00:00 Introduction
01:13 Discussing the accounting brand
01:34 How the guest entered the ecommerce tax niche
03:09 The hidden Shopify fee for international sellers
04:13 Do you need a US LLC: Plus plan vs sales split
06:36 Revenue threshold for opening a US LLC
08:00 Step-by-step process to set up a US LLC
10:22 The costly mistake of naming yourself as owner
12:30 Do US brands need a Canadian setup too
13:56 The $25,000 penalty for missing Form 5472
15:38 Why proper bookkeeping matters for ecommerce brands
17:57 How monthly books help you save on taxes
19:33 The risk of hiring a cheap bookkeeper
22:00 Where to learn more and get help
23:43 Returning Questions to a Fellow Host

Resources:
Subscribe to Honest Ecommerce on Youtube
CPA Tax Accounting and Bookkeeping Firm salaccounting.ca/ 
Follow M. Salman salaccounting.ca/author/salmansalat00/ 

If you’re enjoying the show, we’d love it if you left Honest Ecommerce a review on Apple Podcasts. It makes a huge impact on the success of the podcast, and we love reading every one of your reviews!

Robert Patton is the Founder and CEO of SHEATH, a premium men's underwear brand he conceived while serving as a U.S. Army Sergeant in the scorching heat of the Iraqi desert. After two combat deployments, Robert left the military with a mission: to create performance-driven underwear built around a patented dual pouch system that delivers unmatched comfort and support for active men.

What started as a bootstrap idea fueled by a $5,000 insurance check and a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2013 has grown into a globally recognized brand selling to customers in over 120 countries. SHEATH is the first ever Official Underwear Partner of the UFC — a milestone Robert built without taking on outside investors.

A daily meditator, lifelong student of Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich, and relentless entrepreneur, Robert's story is a testament to grit, reinvention, and the power of solving a real problem the world didn't know it had.

In This Conversation We Discuss:
00:00 Introduction
01:02 What an elite underwear makes
01:56 The Iraq deployment origin story
04:20 Building the first underwear prototype
07:32 Sponsor: Klaviyo
09:47 Early prototypes and finding a manufacturer
15:12 Launching the first Kickstarter campaign
17:06 Sponsor: Intelligems 
18:33 A botched production and near giving up
21:03 The second Kickstarter and revenue growth
22:58 Using AI to speed up product design
24:12 Sponsor: eFulfillment Service 
25:58 Finding customers beyond Kickstarter
26:57 The comedian throw stunt
28:18 Sponsoring comedians and podcast hosts
30:43 Famous names and loyal ad partners
35:04 Advice for aspiring entrepreneurs
38:14 Where to buy underwear for legends

Resources:
Subscribe to Honest Ecommerce on Youtube
Men's pouch underwear sheathunderwear.com/ 
Follow Robert Patton linkedin.com/in/robert-patton-b675273b    
Schedule an intro call with one of our experts electriceye.io/connect 
Get your free demo klaviyo.com/honest 
Book a demo today at intelligems.io/ 
Lower scale costs today eFulfillmentService.com/honest
Schedule an intro call with one of our experts electriceye.io/connect     

If you’re enjoying the show, we’d love it if you left Honest Ecommerce a review on Apple Podcasts. It makes a huge impact on the success of the podcast, and we love reading every one of your reviews!