They Rejected Her. So She Stole Their Audience.

Описание: 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.

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Timestamps:

00:00 - Trailer
02:51 - The Bleach Disaster That Started Hair Syrup
07:10 - The Viral TikTok That Changed Everything
10:47 - She Deleted Her Viral Account…
12:16 - Keeping the Business Secret (Even From Friends)
17:47 - Starting From Her Parents’ Conservatory
19:04 - £40K in Year One (On a £3.99 Website)
23:29 - Faking It in a Retail Buyer Meeting
29:07 - The Charity Shop That Became Her First Warehouse
31:04 - The TikTok Playbook That Scaled the Brand
34:14 - Founder Marketing & “Performative Vulnerability”
41:06 - What Dragon’s Den Was Really Like
49:21 - How Rejection Doubled Revenue (+66%)
52:07 - Turning 6 Rejections Into a Marketing Strategy
54:34 - TikTok Shop: 49% of Revenue (The Risks)
59:00 - Why She Refuses to Chase TikTok Hype
1:01:06 - Building a Sustainable 8-Figure Brand
1:03:06 - The International Expansion Plan
1:04:24 - The Business She’d Start If Not Hair Syrup
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