Native Deodorant's $100M Exit
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A story about how Moiz Ali, the founder of Native Deodorant, methodically chose his product category before building a $100M business.
"Moiz was sitting at the table next to me at Founders Dojo. At first, he was just trying to figure out what to sell. He considered mattresses - he was ordering them and measuring them, but realized that was too much work since mattresses are too big.
The public story is that his sister was pregnant and couldn't find deodorant without harmful chemicals, so he created that product. But the real story is he was systematically looking for a business opportunity. He was like 'I want to build a business, I want to sell something.'
He went through the criteria: Deodorant is small, under 1 pound, ships easily, people use it every month, it's renewable, and there's a niche market for it. He was just seeking problems to solve and when he found it, he went for it.
The business ended up selling for $100 million to P&G, and he had only raised about $1-2 million, so he was super capital efficient."
Shaan Puri
Host of MFM
Shaan Puri is the Chairman and Co-Founder of The Milk Road. He previously worked at Twitch as a Senior Director of Product, Mobile Gaming, and Emerging Markets. He also attended Duke University.