Unfinished Business
Unfinished Business is a podcast hosted by Alex Schinasi and Lee Rotenberg, the operators behind Hulken, a consumer brand that reached over $100 million in sales with a seven-person team and no venture capital. Drawing on their experience building and exiting software companies, they discuss the realities of scaling a consumer brand. Episodes cover topics like inventory tradeoffs, retail margins, collaboration terms, and how AI has changed their operations. It is presented by Structured Agency and Horatio, both used by Hulken to scale.
Episodes
How to Sell Millions in High-Ticket Products (41-Minute Masterclass) | Kevin Chen @ iRestore
Kevin Chen (sells a red light therapy helmet that can cost more than a thousand dollars, takes months to buy, and takes six months to show results. Every DTC playbook says to start with a $30 impulse buy. Kevin went the other way, and he'll be the first to tell you he wouldn't recommend it. It started with his dad's quit-smoking laser clinic, a business where helping customers meant ne
Learn How to Make Millions with Email Marketing in 52 minutes!
Hulken pays Structured $8,500 a month. In Q4 last year, the email and SMS channel Structured runs for them drove more than $3.3 million. Even in a dead summer month with barely any inventory, it still brought in over $540,000.Belynda Murray is the retention strategist at Structured who has run Hulken's email and SMS for the past two years. She sits down with Alex and Lee to open up the playbook: h
How to Go Viral Repeatedly with $0 Marketing | Hot Girl Pickles’ Co-Founders
Leah Marcus and Yasaman Bakhtiar posted about a pickle company every day for months before they had a single jar to sell. The first videos were trends, and the trends flopped in the way that matters: views came in, followers didn't.So they changed the format to two women documenting the build, and people started tuning in like it was a TV show. That series became Good Girl Snacks, the brand be
The Minimum Viable Company: How We Run a $50M Brand With Just 7 People
For most of their careers, Alex and Lee believed a bigger team meant a stronger company. Now they believe the opposite, and they've got the receipts: $50M in revenue last year with seven full-time employees and payroll running at just 4%. In this solo episode, they make the case that in the AI era, headcount has flipped from a status symbol into a warning sign.They break down what they call th
How This CPG Founder Went From a Kitchen Experiment to 7,000 Stores
Katie Lefkowitz was a lifelong Snickers fanatic when a colon cancer scare and a doctor's orders to cut sugar should have ended that relationship. Instead, she went home and started experimenting with date-based caramel in her own kitchen.Katie is the founder of Harken, the better-for-you candy brand now in nearly 7,000 stores including Walmart, Costco, Sprouts, and Kroger, with Whole Foods lau
The Hidden Cost of Scaling Our DTC Brand Without VC Money
Every episode, Alex and Lee talk about how fast Hulken is growing. This one is about what that growth actually costs.For the first time, they get candid about the messy middle of scaling a bootstrapped, vertically integrated brand: chronically out of stock on their bestsellers, rerouting inventory away from their own website to protect retail relationships, and discovering that the model that buil
How TUSHY Turned a Taboo Category Into One of DTC's Strongest Brands with Justin Allen
Justin Allen co-founded TUSHY a decade ago to solve a problem most Americans didn't know they had. No roadmap, no comparable brand, no playbook… just a bet that if you made toileting joyful enough, people would come around. They did.Now, ten years in, Justin is asking harder questions: What does brand even mean when the media landscape has completely fractured? How do you build creative at sca
Going From $50M to $100M: How We Use Partnerships As Our Biggest Growth Levers at Hulken
Two things have been true at Hulken since year one: no dropshipping, and only say yes to collabs that actually earn it. On the eve of launching their most complex product development yet (a full pattern collab with Posh Peanut), Alex and Lee sit down to work out, on camera, what they actually think now.This is a solo episode. No guest filter, no rehearsed takes. At $50M, the playbook isn't fin
The DTC Trap That Built Juliet Wine's Retail Empire | Allison Luvera
Most founders building consumer brands think DTC is the goal. Allison Luvera knew from day one it was just the testing ground. Getting into Whole Foods, Costco, Safeway, and Total Wine with five employees and a patented box wine format was a three-year plan built on intentional price testing, customer research, and unit economics priced for retail before she ever walked into a retailer.Allison is
What Most DTC Founders Get Wrong About Entering a Crowded Category | Greta Meyer
Greta Meyer started Sequel in a college classroom. She and her co-founder identified a physics flaw in the tampon that nobody had fixed in almost 100 years, and spent years navigating FDA clearance, manufacturing partnerships, and a medical device regulatory process most founders would have quit on. They launched DTC, spent almost nothing on ads, and built their brand through partnerships instead.
The DTC math most founders refuse to do (until it's too late) | Suze Dowling @ Pattern Brands
Suze Dowling has seen the inside of more DTC brands than almost anyone. As co-founder of Pattern Brands, a multi-brand home goods portfolio she's been building since 2018, she doesn't just run one brand. She runs five at once on a shared services team, which means she watches the same mistakes play out across categories, price points, and growth stages, over and over again.The biggest one:
Inside Hulken: How Our CBO Built a $50M Community-Led Luxury Brand
We turned the mic around. For the first time on Unfinished Business, Alex and Lee are interviewing someone from inside Hulken, their own Chief Brand Officer.Tara Seruya has been working with Alex and Lee for over a decade. They first met at Ivy, their first company together. When Hulken came along, Tara came with it. She's the person behind every brand decision that resonates: the Supreme coll
How We Built a $50M Consumer Brand with 7 People
Seven people. $50 million in annual revenue. One brand that somehow manages to feel like it's everywhere.If you've ever wondered how Hulken actually works (the operating model, the org chart, the tools, the strategy), this is the episode.This week on Unfinished Business, there's no guest. It's just Alex Schinasi and Lee Rotenberg, co-founders of Hulken and co-hosts of this show, ge
How Dylan Munro Invented a New $130M DTC Category and Built a Factory to Protect It
They cooked dog food in a rented kitchen in Queens. Their friends thought they were insane. That was 2018.Today, Spot & Tango is a 100% direct-to-consumer, subscription dog food company doing $120-130M in revenue and growing 60% year over year. This is all with zero retail shelves, 95% subscription, and a $35M factory they built themselves to protect a category they invented.Dylan Munro is the
The Bootstrapped DTC Founder's Playbook with Ben Cogan of Beanstalk
The DTC era of "raise money first, ask questions later" is over. And Ben Cogan saw it coming.Ben is the co-founder of Hubble Contacts, one of the original DTC brands, which grew to $100M+ in revenue and earned him a spot on Forbes 30 Under 30. He then founded Mockingbird Strollers (now in Target), Agora (a DTC acquisition firm with $120M raised and $200M+ across its portfolio), and Beans
Why Most DTC Brands Get Retail Wrong (and How to Fix It) with Nate Rosen @ Express Checkout
He's seen the balance sheets behind the brands your feed tells you are crushing it. And what he's found? The gap between the press release and the spreadsheet is bigger than you think.Nate Rosen is the co-founder of Express Checkout: the media company covering CPG, consumer brands, and retail with the kind of depth and honesty the industry doesn't always love. With a twice-weekly Subst
How to Build a DTC Brand That Actually Lasts with Brooke Yoakam
Most marketing decisions aren't driven by strategy. They're driven by ego.That's the honest (and slightly uncomfortable) truth that Brooke Yoakam, founder of AvidAI and the brand analyst behind @thebrandblueprint_, dropped on this week's Unfinished Business. And she's not wrong.Brooke has been an entrepreneur since she was 13. She built GiftPocket, a customer acquisition platfo
Why the Best DTC Brands Build Slow (with Steph Hon @ Cadence)
She spent two years building one product. Went through 207 prototypes. Filed 4 patents. Heard 2,500 nos from investors. And now has 200 of them.That's Steph Hon, founder and CEO of Cadence: the modular, magnetic, TSA-compliant capsule system that's redefining how people carry their routines on the go. Made with recycled ocean plastics. Built with a philosophy that hasn't wavered since
Season 2 of Unfinished Business: The Truth About Scaling a Profitable DTC Brand from $0 → $50M
Season 2 of Unfinished Business is officially here and a lot has changed since we wrapped Season 1.When we first started this podcast, we were still at Clay. Hulken was growing, but it wasn’t our full focus. Over the last year, we left venture-backed SaaS, went all in on Hulken, hit $50M in revenue, launched nationwide in Target with an end cap, expanded across Asia, opened our first office in New
From Side Hustle to Swimwear Empire: The Andie Swim Story with Founder Melanie Travis
Melanie Travis didn’t go to fashion school. She didn’t work at a legacy brand. She didn’t have a co-founder, a warehouse, or a team.What she did have was a miserable experience swimsuit shopping for a company retreat and a hunch that other women felt the same.In this episode of Unfinished Business, Melanie joins Alex and Lee to share how she turned a universal frustration into Andie Swim, a nation
Relationships, Intimacy, and Keeping it Together: An Unfiltered Chat with Alex and Lee
No guests. No prep. Just us.In this episode, we sat down together — two co-founders, two moms, two longtime partners in life and business — to talk about what’s really keeping our relationships strong. And what’s absolutely not.We covered:– Why Alex has never farted in front of her husband in 10 years (yes, really)– Why French kissing still matters (even after a decade)– How to maintain attraction
How Liz Teich Turned Her Side Hustle Into a Full-Fledged NYC Styling Empire
Liz Teich and her brand The New York Stylist is the real deal. A New York fashion stylist with nearly 20 years of experience, a loyal online following, and a sustainable wardrobe philosophy that actually makes sense.In this episode, Liz sits down with Alex and Lee to talk about how she built her business, her brand, and her confidence… without chasing trends or cutting corners.We cover:The persona
How to Scale a Brand, Manage Anxiety & Stay Offline, with Tieghan Gerard @Half Baked Harvest
Tieghan Gerard built one of the most beloved food brands on the internet.Today, Half Baked Harvest has over 6 million followers across platforms, four bestselling cookbooks, a candle line, a sold-out national tour with Williams-Sonoma, and a fiercely loyal community that shows up for everything she creates.But the story behind the brand? It’s chaotic, personal, and deeply real.In this episode of U
From Ballet to Balenciaga: Victoria Brito’s Unfiltered Story
Victoria Brito has lived many lives: ballerina, global fashion model, queer icon, and now podcast host. But beneath the resume is a story of resilience, reinvention, and radical self-trust.In this episode of Unfinished Business, Victoria opens up about:Being raised by a single mom and mentored by Pelé (yes, that Pelé)What it takes to stay grounded in industries built on performanceHer viral relati
Dating, Branding, and the Power of Being Your Damn Self, with Alex Sall, Founder & Creative Director at ALSALL Studio
What do branding and dating have in common?More than you’d think.This week on Unfinished Business, we sit down with creative director and wellness advocate Alex Sall to talk about what it really means to show up as your authentic self—in business and in love.We get into:How to build a brand that actually feels like youWhy confidence is the real secret to success (on Hinge and on Shopify)The toxic
We Built a $30M Brand Without VC, and We’re Just Getting Started
Alex and Lee are back with a brutally honest look at what it’s really like to build a profitable, non-venture-backed brand.They reflect on:Scaling Hulken to $30M+ with a tiny teamSaying no to VC—and why they’re not looking backWhat it means to build a “Kleenex-level” brand in a world of dupesDTC strategy, community magic, and the power of going slowPlus: They tease new product drops (carry-on aler
Meet The Founder Who Posted About Her Period & Built a Brand Gen Z Actually Trusts — Nadya Okamoto, Co-Founder of August
Would you post about your period online to build your business? Nadya Okamoto did—and that’s just the beginning.In this episode of Unfinished Business, we sit down with Nadya Okamoto, the fearless founder of August, a Gen Z brand that’s flipping the tampon industry on its head.We talk about:What DTC brands get wrong about Gen Z (and why “Hey Bestie” doesn’t work)Why she posted 5,500+ videos to lau
What Ballet Can Teach You About Perfection, Feedback, and Not Falling Apart, with Megan Fairchild, NYC Ballet Dancer
What do ballet and building a company have in common?Way more than you’d think.Megan Fairchild is a principal dancer at New York City Ballet, an author, an NYU MBA grad, and a mom of three (including twins). In this episode, she gets radically honest about the pressure to perform—on stage, at work, and at home.We talk about:🩰 Perfectionism as a tool, not a personality flaw🧠 How to give and receive
How to Build a Sex Toy Empire Without Selling Your Soul (or Raising VC), with Alexandra Fine, Co-Founder and CEO of Dame Products
What if you could build a multi-million dollar company from a coin, some cellophane, and zero outside capital?Alexandra Fine did exactly that.She’s the Co-Founder and CEO of Dame Products—one of the most iconic sex toy brands in the world. In this episode, Alexandra gets radically honest about:🔥 Starting her company in her grandma’s pool house🔥 Prototyping her first product using plastic from an a
The Best Startup Advice You’ll Ever Hear (And Why You’ll Probably Ignore It) with Jonathan Bush
💡 “Give up right before you drown—but only after you’ve had Wim Hof training.” 💡Jonathan Bush, co-founder of Athena Health and now Zus Health, has seen it all—building a billion-dollar company, taking it public, getting fired, and now starting again from scratch.In this raw and unfiltered conversation, Jonathan shares:🚀 The brutal truth about being a founder (and why most people shouldn’t do it)🛑
Running Toward Your Dreams—or Just Running? With Actress Daniella Rabbani
In this episode, Alex and Lee chat with Daniella Rabbani about her multifaceted career as an actor, podcaster, Yiddish singer, and mother. Daniella shares her journey from Orthodox Judaism to pursuing her artistic passions, her recent performance in Poland on Holocaust Remembrance Day, and how she balances motherhood with her creative pursuits.TIMESTAMPS:0:00 Introduction & Daniella's Crea
If Your Body Is Screaming at You, Maybe Listen? With Kim Strother
We’ve all been there—feeling exhausted, out of balance, or simply off, but pushing through anyway because that’s what we’ve been conditioned to do. Work harder, train harder, do more. But what happens when your body starts waving every red flag in the book, and no one—including you—is listening?Our guest on Unfinished Business this week, Kim Strother, knows this journey better than most. A persona
How To Change Your Sex Life From So-So To Spicy, with Catalina Garcia, founder of Bonded
In this episode of Unfinished Business, we talk with Catalina Garcia, founder of Bonded, an app that helps users understand their sexuality and improve intimacy. Catalina shares insights on maintaining passion in long-term relationships, cultural differences in discussing sex between Europe and America, and practical advice for exploring personal desires. The conversation covers everything from th
Building with Fearlessness, Leadership Wisdom from Calibrate Founder, Isabelle Kenyon
Join hosts Alex Schinasi and Lee Rotenberg on this episode of Unfinished Business as they sit down with Isabelle Kenyon, pioneering entrepreneur and founder of Calibrate. In this candid conversation, Isabelle shares her remarkable journey from investment banking to revolutionizing healthcare following a life-changing injury. Discover how she built a company in the GLP-1 space before most people ha
How to Deal with Mom Guilt, Prioritize Yourself, and Have Fun at Work, with Alex + Lee
When Alex found out she was pregnant right after raising their first million in VC funding, she burst into tears. When Lee was at her breaking point, she found herself lying on a WeWork bathroom floor. This is the unfiltered story of two founders navigating motherhood and entrepreneurship – complete with all the tears, guilt, and impossible choices that never make it to the highlight reel.
In thi
Unlocking the Power of the Pivot: Takeaways from Sarah Schaff’s Journey
Pivoting in life and business isn’t just about making changes; it’s about navigating uncertainty with intention, self-awareness, and a clear framework. In this episode of Unfinished Business, Sarah Schaff shared her incredible journey—from lawyer to entrepreneur to executive coach—filled with actionable insights and inspiring anecdotes.
The Power of Asking for Help: Insights from Katharina Hoeftmann Ciobotaru
In this week’s episode of Unfinished Business, we sat down with Katharina Hoeftmann Ciobotaru, author of Guten Morgen, Tel Aviv! and a powerhouse entrepreneur. Katharina shared her hard-earned wisdom on overcoming self-doubt, embracing vulnerability, and redefining what it means to ask for help. Here’s how her story inspires us to rethink the way we approach success.
Build Your Best Year: How We Dominated 2024 With the Power of Manifestation
December always feels like a double-edged sword. It’s the season of magic and reflection, but also exhaustion. This year, it hit especially hard. Between selling a company, having a baby (Lee), scaling another business (Alex), and now training for a half marathon (both of us… what were we thinking?), we’re ending 2024 feeling like we’ve lived five lives in one.
One of the tools that’s kept us gro
The Co-Founder Marriage: How to Find & Keep Your Business Partner(s), With Omri Mendellevich
This week’s guest is none other than our incredible co-founder at Clay, Omri Mendellevich — who’s aforementioned Dynamic Yield was eventually acquired for a whopping $300M+ by McDonald’s. Our conversation dives deep into the sometime precarious, always fun co-founder dynamics — what works, what doesn’t, and how to navigate the delicate balance of personalities, responsibilities, and challenges.
W
Purpose, Naivety & the Good Enough Mentality: How to Unlock Early-Stage Growth with Ron Gura
Alex and Lee first met Ron Gura in Tel Aviv, when they had just launched their business and were finding their footing as founders. Now, years later, the pair welcome his insights on Unfinished Business.
This episode delves into the early stages of entrepreneurship.
Where to begin?
How to find the right co-founder?
Whether to seek VC funding?
And most crucially... how to land on the right id
How to Channel Badassery In Motherhood, Career & Beyond With Tali Roth
Tali Roth is a powerhouse in the design world — an extraordinary interior designer with an entrepreneurial spirit at heart. Like us, she’s balancing the chaos of raising a family and running a business, embracing the highs and lows that come with both.
In this episode, Tali shares her career journey from the early fashion days to building her own interior design brand, coincidentally normalizing
Makeup Artist to Maven: How Rea Ann Silva Built Beautyblender With These 3 Ingredients
When Alex first met Rea Ann Silva, founder of Beautyblender, in her New York office just over a year ago, it was clear she was someone special. What started as a casual meeting quickly grew into a close friendship and a successful partnership—most notably with their collaboration on the Beautyblender x HULKEN, which became an instant bestseller.
Rea Ann has experienced the highs and lows of runn
The Making of “Unfinished Business” — And Your Sign to Get It Going
Since launching the podcast, the question we get most regularly is: How did we get started? What steps did we take when we were going after our first ventures?
If Unfinished Business is something of a time capsule for the years we’ve had so far, this episode is a tribute to the very beginning of it all. You’ll hear us yap about our first project together, and a present-day “how we built this” ref
How to Move On When Your Business Fails, with Roee Adler
In this episode, we’re focusing on the things that don’t work or haven’t gone our way. Failure is an inevitable part of every founder’s journey — scary as it may be. But as this episode teaches, how we move through those failures can inspire our next success.
This week, we sat down with Roee Adler — former Chief Product Officer of WeWork and Soluto, who was part of 4 successful startup exits — bu
How to Manifest Success: Visualization Techniques, with Barbara Biziou
It’s already been plenty-times confirmed, but in case you need it again: Manifestation. Really. Works. And this week’s guest has *made* it work for both of us, in business and life, several times over.
This week’s guest isn’t just any manifestation coach. For three decades, Barbara Biziou’s been a secret weapon to entrepreneurs, corporate leaders, and career creatives at their most critical junct
Aaron Schwartz Shares Unconventional Strategies for Closing Your Next Round
When it comes to fundraising, the stakes are high. You're not just selling an idea; you're inviting investors to believe in your vision, your team, and your ability to deliver results. But as serial entrepreneur, investor, and advisor Aaron Schwartz shared on our newest episode of Unfinished Business, perhaps the secret to mastering the art of pitching lies in another equally tricky endeav
The Subtle Art of Showing Off: Lessons in Mastering Your Personal Brand from Patrice Poltzer
In today’s hyperconnected world, the boundaries between you and your company’s brand are few and far between — gone are the days when founders could remain comfortably behind the scenes while your product did the talking. Now, getting ahead of the game means **getting in front of the lens. But embracing your brand isn’t about showing up flawless — it’s just about showing up.
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