Lock-In by HappyStack 🥞

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 Muse
12:00 Taking Impulsive Risks
14:55 Importance of Building a Rounded Skillset
19:30 How One Hero Product Can Change Your Life
22:20 Importance of Being Your Own Customer
28:00 The Influencer Moment That Changed Odd Muse
33:30 Founder-Led Marketing
37:00 Dealing With Online Trolls Over The Last 12 Months
46:08 Why She's Now Stepping Back & Hiring a CEO
53:25 How Moving to New York Changed Her Mindset
55:30 The Strategy Behind Odd Muse's Retail Stores
01:01:30 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 now

How AI is reshaping acquisition

Why doubling down on your influencer strategy is no longer optional

What it actually takes to scale a modern DTC brand in 2025

If you’re looking to sharpen your customer acquisition strategy over the next 12 months, this is the episode you’ll want to binge.